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Subject:Re: Looking for Copyright info From:Iain Harrison <iharrison -at- SCT -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Thu, 26 Sep 1996 16:14:40 GMT
I think that there is some doubt about the legal status of graphics from
web pages when they are linked, but none where they are copied onto your
server.
If you have a page about cars, and put a link to Ford's pages, complete
with a link to a picture of this year's model, the browser will read the
page from the Ford web site. You have merely invited the reader to take a
look at the picture, and showed it in its own location. MAYBE! There are
people who assert that this is breach of copyright, but I'm not sure what
the truth is.
If, on the other hand, you download the picture from Ford (as you do
whenever you visit the site) and then copy it to your own web server, there
is no question: you are in breach of copyright, just as if you had scanned
that picture from a brochure Ford issued.
Of course, the copyright laws vary from country to country, and many are
ignored, but I think your company is skating on thin ice at least, and is
probably about to plunge into icy water.
