[LTW] Copyrights!

[guide title="Copyrights Simplified"]
[tit]The CopyRights Law Explained in Simple Terms[/tit]
[box]It's sort of like the situation with Model Releases. You need one in order to sell the use of an image of someone who posed for you. If you don't have one, then telling the court that they never told you that you *couldn't* sell the image isn't going to get you off the hook. You have to have the Model Release and it needs to be in writing. With that, you're legal; without that you're not. And it's the same with copyrights. If you have written permission to use the image, then you're legal; if you don't have written permission, then it's not legal.

An image is copyrighted the instant that the shutter clicks, regardless of whether or not the copyright is of any interest to you. There is a right to make copies (the copyright!) and that right initially belongs to you. You can do lots of things, including granting others limited usage and even selling the copyright entirely, but the one thing you can't do is to destroy the copyright, not in any legal sense. It exists until it expires.

The right to make copies is much more inclusive than most people even imagine as it includes "derivations". A classic case was the suit filed by a photographer against a ceramic artist. The photographer had made an image of two people holding a bunch of puppies in their combined arms. The ceramic artist made a similar image in ceramic. The ceramic artist lost the suit. It was a "derivation" and was in violation of copyright law. Similarly, if you start with a photo of someone elses and make, say, a pencil sketch from it, *even if for your own, private use*, you've just violated copyright law.

Most folk don't know copyright law from their mother-in-law's backside. There's a lot of "folk wisdom" about copyright out there -- and it's all dead wrong.

The (very simple) bottom line is that if you want to use someone else’s image, in whole or in part, or any derivations thereof, in any fashion whatsoever, for any reason whatsoever, for any audience including *none*, then you have to have permission or else you're violating copyright law.

As for copyright notice: It's not required. It's totally optional. It's put there to slow down those folks who (in all innocence) would otherwise take the image, thinking that it was not copyrighted. It was, but some folk don't know that, so you have to spell it out. It's as if you put a sign on the door to your house: "No Trespassing". You see, even without the sign there, it was always illegal to trespass. You only need the sign if your neighbors are pretty dumb!

Registering a copyright is a formality that you *can* go through and which increases the penalties for violating copyright law. Copyright exists with or without registering. It's only a question of how much you can sue for. Without registering you can only sue for actual damages. With registering you can sue for actual damages plus treble punitive damages plus court costs. But, either way, it's copyrighted!
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Credits to Lady Arabella on the hplf forum, and Oberon on the World Crossing forum.

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Last edited by Jethro on Sun Feb 19, 2017 7:44 am; edited 3 times in total (Reason for editing : Título anterior: Copyrights!)

[guide title="COPYRIGHTING"]
[tit]Introduction[/tit]
[box]Copyright is a set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression. In most jurisdictions copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered. Copyright owners have the exclusive statutory right to exercise control over copying and other exploitation of the works for a specific period of time, after which the work is said to enter the public domain. Uses covered under limitations and exceptions to copyright, such as fair use, do not require permission from the copyright owner. All other uses require permission. Copyright owners can license or permanently transfer or assign their exclusive rights to others.

*This information was taken from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright[/box]
[tit]DEFINITION OF COPYRIGHT[/tit]
[box]"The exclusive right to make copies, license, and otherwise-exploit a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc. works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death" *Info was taken from:  http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright

Basically, this means that you're not allowed to copy or use work made by the author without their permission. This includes Stories, poems etc, and pictures, drawing etc. STP encourages you to make your own art and stuff, so please give credit when it is due. One way to recognize if an art, photo, etc. Is under copyright protection, is because is marked in somewhere (usually next the name of the owner) with the symbol of copyright "©"[/box]
[tit]BE AWARE OF THE CΟPYRIGHTS, how to avoid to violate them[/tit]
[box]

◙ THEFT:
When you go against the Copyright, this is considered theft. If you are caught stealing anything from STP, you will either be kicked out of the pack or punished. And you could also get in trouble with the police, so don’t do it!

◙ STP's Cℴpyrights:
Everything on STP's website is Copyrighted to Strong and the Seasonal Trackers Pack. If it is something we did not make, then we'll state where it is from. Please, do not use anything from this website without the permission of Strong or the author!

◙ What is especially unique and original from STP?
Here is little list of ideas by Strong which are strictly "his own" and some pictures and icons which are strictly his Copyright:
- All art signed with "Strong STP" or "Str0ngwolf" or "Edited by Strong" - The idea of an interactive map to access to every part of the territory in RP.- The idea of interactive pictures in each RP topic that shows the different parts of the land.- The numbers in each interactive picture to locate where your wolf is in the same RP topic.- The Activity Field and the old Dominants trust in percentage.- Contents of the RP guides, tutorials and similar topics.- The Skills bar functions in Member's profiles.- The ways of training, fighting and hunting (codes and guides).- The idea of the Missions.- The creation of the user account called Game Master and the use of it.- The user account on WQ to be used on pack’s thread and only accessible by the council (now into abeyance)- The bones system as a coin in STP.- Wolf's Aura and Badges info.- Others that have not yet posted..but you going to recognize easily

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[tit]ABOUT LICENSES AND PERMISSIONS[/tit]
[box]First of all, you've to understand that there are two types of products. Ones that are not free to use, it means that has a Copyright (You should have about it above in the spoiler) and the others that has an owner or author but do not have a copyright protection.

In the next spoilers we are going to mention and explain the second type of products, so pay attention because there are secrets of how to not commit an Art theft or be in trouble with the protectors of their laws (Copyright laws) that could mean a payment via penalty or in a big scale to have trouble with the police.

Second spoiler share the main licence that is used almost in all the stock sites, but if someone know another one I will add it on this guide![/box]

[tit]INFO ABOUT LICENCES[/tit]
[box]It's important to you to understand that almost all the free products are free but under some type of licence. Normally shared in somewhere in the same page where is the photo located, or if not on the footer of the site, under the name like "Privacy policy - Terms of use - Licenses - Copyright Policy" or others. So is advisable read them in order to know the uses you can do on the products or contents that you extracted from these sites! Again, everything to do a correct use of the products that not belongs you!

Example of a Footer:


Sometimes the footer only says "Author, date" or "All rights reserved" in these cases I recommend you to go out  immediately of the website (if you are in search of contents to use in your own sites or outside the site you visited) because surely you are not allowed to use them in any way, unless you find elsewhere of the site a content with authorization of usage.
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[tit]Creative commons[/tit]
[box]You can find almost all about this license on their website -> http://creativecommons.org/
But the most important things to know will be shared on next lines:

Types of symbols and meanings:
The image shown the meanings of the different symbols of the licenses
https://i.servimg.com/u/f43/14/83/42/45/creati10.gif
So, if you see an image with one or more of these symbols, you have to do what they required if you want use them.

But be careful, because sometimes this licence is attached to a guetty image licence, then you surely will have to pay or something. Here is an example about what I am talking:
https://i.imgur.com/U2gTfqn.png

As you'll see, you'll be able to use the images, but the rights to use will be one or other according the sub-licence. Ones lets you to modify the original other not, etc. But exists a requisite that is in all the works and products under this licence.. is the fact that you must to show the name of the author and also link to the product.  Remember that you have to put a link in somewhere where you used the image that directs to the place where is located the source, not simply in the homepage where you extracted it! If not, in the exact route where is the photo you have used.


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[tit]Why direct links to the page where is the photo?[/tit]
[box]It is a matter of respect to the author for offered an art for free, as well as some pieces have as sub-licence type the last icon on the image above, it means,  that "for any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work". And, the best way to do this is with a link to the web page where is the photo, etc.![/box]

[tit]HOW TO FIND THE FREE COPYRIGHT PRODUCTS (images, photos, etc.)?[/tit]
[box]There are eight resources for finding free and licensed images for your website, they are named in the following spoilers! Click on them to know about them closely, and how use their products. (Source of these 8 resources translated from here)

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS:
#*This is the media division of Wikipedia "The Free Encyclopedia", which works like a store of image's files and other multimedia formats released under a free license (like GNU, Free Documentation License) and in the public domain (PD or demanio). It currently has over 6 million free media, among which there are thousands and thousands of images you can use to your site, without having to worry about having to seek permission for use.

Site: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page


FLICKR in ADVANCED SEARCH:
#*Flickr offers an advanced search tool that searches within content that is released under a Creative Commons licence. Selecting the respective check boxes, you can get results that record content for commercial use or to modify, adapt or to use as a base to generate derivative works. Certainly a good option to find images that we include in our websites, etc.

Site: http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/?




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