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Science Photo Library
timault:
Hi
We've received a letter from the science photo library claiming that we owe them £500 for using one of their images on our website. They are saying that this is copyright infringement and entitles them to seek compensation for infringing uses.
The image in question is found on Wikicommons here.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Peter_higgs_chalkboard.jpg
where it says:
"This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
You are free:
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
share alike – If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one".
We also carried out further searches to see if the image might be subject to copyright. A search on “Peter Higgs image” finds various images including the one in question which is in use on the University of Edinburgh site: http://www2.ph.ed.ac.uk/particle-physics-experiment/news.html. There is nothing on this page to suggest that the image may be subject to copyright.
Our feeling is that we took reasonable steps to check that we could use the image and had no way of knowing that the image might be subject to copyright.
Can anyone advise me where we stand on this one?
thanks
Tim Ault
Robert Krausankas (BuddhaPi):
be sure to screen capture that entire page! send said screen shot to copyright troll, tell copyright to shag off, if said copyright trolls files suit, they will lose. It is my opinion ( i'm not a lawyer) that you are on very solid ground!
Greg Troy (KeepFighting):
I agree with Robert, I would tell them to pound sand. If what you have said is accurate I think (I'm not a lawyer either) you have a strong case for yourself.
timault:
Robert, Greg, Thanks for your replies.
It really annoys me that these people can get away with sending letters like this to people like me who are trying to get on with running our businesses. We have better things to be spending our time on.
I'm really grateful to you for taking the time to reply. We'll do what you suggest and see what happens.
Tim
DavidVGoliath:
Hold all your f'n horses a minute.
Within a few moments of reading this message, I was able to trace the original image, as shot by Peter Tuffy for the University of Edinburgh
https://licensing.eri.ed.ac.uk/i/copyright/peter-higgs-image.html
Whoever "Hans G" is (per the flickr / wikimedia info page) - he's not the copyright holder and had no fucking business uploading it to either flickr or wikimedia under a Creative Commons license.
I hope this illustrates the absolute bullshit that Creative Commons is; their system is fundamentally broken because people who lack morals or ethics will share material which they know to be protected by copyright, thus creating a ball-ache for everyone esle
Oh, and timault... you better be prepared to argue and prove that you performed a diligent search prior to using the photograph; like I said, it took me less than a few minutes to trace the original copyright file
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