I know that everyone on here has probably done it at some point, but I was wondering if posting pictures of toys falls under copyrighted material being posted. That's all.

Im sure that it comes under the Fair Use section of Copyright law in most countries.

Here is what I found under the Fair Use clause for copyrighted work:



Since the photos shown here are for commentary or opinionated reviews, and not for sale or other commercial uses, it's OK. The only exception is if it's something exclusive to a certain organization (such as TFCC), where permission must be sought to use their images. This is because they market their images as 'club exclusives', meaning only their members have been given the right to view said images.

I was right! Well I did leave the exclusives part out but my point still stands, though like boiled spaghetti...

Thanks. I figured fair use, but I didn't know exactly what the specifics were. Much appreciated.

Although it also does depend on who took the pictures... if you're posting someone else's images w/o credit, I'm not sure if it's illegal per se but IMO it does fall under "being a tool."

Good point, I was going off the assumation that the pictures posted were by the original photographer. Posting something watermarked, or otherwise not of your work, without permission would also be cause for copyright infringement.

But wouldnt a watermarked image class as giving credit/advertising anyway? I think the problem would arize if you took someone elses image and then watermarked it with your own logo..

Technically, this would would surely also cover "prototype" images and other pics of toys and TF imagery that hasnt been officially released yet (such as news or pics about the TF movies before permission has been given by Paramount etc).

However, if that is true, then TFormers still shows them but does not allow images from TFCC or BOTCON unless given permission.

This confuses me.

It's all up to the discretion of the copyright holder. We don't post TFCC/BotCon images prior to official release at their request.

It's a matter of enforcement. TFCC cruises the websites regularly and, therefore, will enforce their rights to the image if they see an image that is rightfully theirs which wasn't posted with permission. Remember, also, that BotCon is managed by TFCC so it also falls under their jurisdiction. Under most circumstances, the holder of the original image wouldn't realize his work is being used elswhere unless being alerted to it, either by someone who recognizes his work or if they happed to stumble on it themselves. In that instance, they would contact site admin (or the webmaster) proving ownership to the image and requesting it's removal.

There are certain instances when the original owner of the image can be alerted to someone 'lifting' his image, but in those cases that image is usually embedded to the site page so it cannot be copied. Of course, there are image capture programs that can workaround that, but then you would have a blatant case for copyright infringement. Hope that clears up the confusion.

If you'd like an instance of where infringement can land you in hot water, here's a great example.