I just came across this problem right before I wanted to create a sig. I want to use a stock but its from CG Talk and its copy writed. I know its not allowed to be rendered but can we use it as a stock in a sig?
I thought those copyrights were for use of images in creation of profit. As long as your not making money off of them, You're not doing anything Illegal, Right? Unless you have to pay for ownership of the image, I dunno, Just blowing smoke out my rear, I have no idea if it would be illegal or not.
Yeah I thought that too. Maybe GR just doesn't allow them since you can sorta make profit off of them (through credits). I've only heard of magazines getting in trouble for copyrighted images, but obviously if they sell the magazine they're making some money off of the picture. But I guess since stocks from there are made by individual efforts, it's kinda like ripping they're work if you don't ask for permission from them.
Contact the creator of the image and ask them if it is okay to use in a signature, rule of thumb though is that if it is from a place like deviantart or is copyrighted, you should not use it. Unless they give you permission to do so.
Copyrights are there to protect the author's work in general. It doesn't matter if you make money from it or not. You still need permission. They can't sue, but it can tick them off enough to either remove their artwork, or watermark it in an obnoxious manner. Secondly, don't refer to it as a stock. It's not. If it is listed as a stock, you may use it. From what I've seen about CGTalk, none of the work on there is posted as stocks. You need to receive owner permission to use them for anything. I'll be even more familiar with this come Tuesday evening, since I'll be going to an ASMP Legal Panel to discuss "the legal aspects of Intellectual Property, Copyright, Patent, Publicity, and Trademark Law with two outstanding local attorneys." Or so says the information I received.
And images from a personal artist's site. Everything else is free game. Why? Because when you post it on another website, you give up certain rights. It's like how I can take a picture of you on the street and make money off of it without your permission (you can still argue for royalties and potentially win). The street is a place where you can expect your picture to end up somewhere, so the law recognizes it as fair game. If I take a picture from the street into your yard, it then becomes a private thing and I need your permission because you don't expect your photo to be taken. Which is why I'm debating whether or not to sneak some camera stuff into a store. It's a private establishment, so the law would probably side with the subject over the photographer... Anyways, that's my understanding of how it works. Just don't go stealing from the artist's website, that's just as bad as stealing from dA or CG Talk (worse, actually). GR doesn't have a rule about it, but that's because those artists don't frequent the website to complain...
