What if pages aren't copyrighted?

Images Specifically

[madcat]

I've found an image online that works perfectly on my site. There isn't a copyright notice to be found on the entire site...

I've sent an email to the person who made the page- but what if I never hear anything back?

Does there have to be a symbol for legal action?

[Mike12345]

....but what if I never hear anything back?

- then dont use the image.

Some folk might disagree, but it isnt right to take anything without permission.

Does there have to be a symbol for legal action?

- Im not sure if you need a symbol or not, but would you steal something from a shop if there wasnt a sign saying "please do not steal".

If you dont get an answer form the webmaster concerned, keep trying, but IMO its highly immoral to take anythign without permission.

What method have you used in order to get in touch with the webmaster? Did you use the email address on the site? If so then perhaps you could try the whois information for contact details and try that route.

<added>

There isn't a copyright notice to be found

- How about looking in the source there could be a note in there, ive seen this a few times.
</added>

[jdMorgan]

madcat,

> Does there have to be a symbol for legal action?

No, under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), passed in October 1998 to implement the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) treaties, all documents on the World Wide Web are copyrighted by default, and cannot be copied (subject to certain fair use and safe harbor provisions) unless permission is expressly granted.

United States Copyright Office - Library of Congress site [loc.gov]

The implementation of the WIPO treaties may differ in other countries - this is for the U.S.A.

In addition to asking if you can use the image, you should first make sure that the site owner owns it -- that is, that the site owner has the right to give you permission to use it.

Not good news for you, I know. :(

Jim

[tosspot17]

I'd have to agree with Mike...

Today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately and originally after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not.
The default you should assume for other people's works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise. There are some old works that lost protection without notice, but frankly you should not risk it unless you know for sure.

_{Taken from www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html}

It doesn't matter if theres a © symbol, it's still protected.

[jim_w]

Yea, but good luck on finding an attorney to take the case. There is no precedence in any other court, and in my experience, no attorney seems to want to get involved.

[korkus2000]

Don't use it. The owner will drop you from google and all the other engines. You will also lose your host, since it is a violation of most hosters agreement. As said before the image is copyright of the creator.

You will be surprised though at how many people will let you use images. Try to make contact, and you may get it for free. Offer to make a credits page with a link back to the site.

[madcat]

Cool- Yeah, just got permission to use the pic.

No, I wouldn't feel comfortable with taking anything- Unless I smashed it up in Photoshop or Fireworks so that it was unrecognizable.

I was just unclear as to what fell under public domain.

Most appreciated...