So What About Copyrighted Content?

Hi everyone. I know that most internet users run willy-nilly copying great photos and pasting them to their favorite websites (Tennisopolis included.) I couldn't imagine how many illegally duplicated photos are on Facebook alone. Not to mention all the illegal vids on YouTube. Nonetheless, it is not allowed. Unless you have been given permission by the author of a photo (some people call them photographers, but in the world of copyright law "author" is the term) or a video and news articles, you may not duplicate it.

We were recently reminded of this fact when a takedown notice was issued for some Ana Ivanovic pics that a member had uploaded to Tennisopolis. They were taken down immediately, and now we are reminding all of our fantastic members to take down any photos that you may have uploaded without permission. We'll be scanning the site looking for professional photographs to delete. If we mistakenly take down some original content of your's or some content that you have written permission to use, forgive us. Re-upload it and let us know.

And you say, "But Mark, where am I going to get a great photo of my favorite player if I can't afford to go to Wimbledon?" Not to worry, there is always Flickr.com. Now, here's how you do it. Only some of the images can be used from Flickr, NOT ALL. Some "authors" post on Flickr but still retain copyrights and deny the use of them.

How to find the photos that are free to use: Go to the Advanced Search page at Flickr and be sure to click the box at the bottom for "Creative Commons". If you want to be extra safe, click on the "Find content to use commercially" button. Be sure to click on the copyright logo at the bottom of the right column (Additional Information zone) to see what that particular author requires. Some want you to give them credit, in which case there is a small embeddable text which will do so. THERE ARE LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TENNIS PHOTOS AVAILABLE FOR USE. :-)

Here's some great photos we found in 2 minutes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mistybushell/ / CC BY 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jiazi/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/reefoto-com/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

http://www.flickr.com/photos/toughlove/ / CC BY 2.0

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Comment by Mark / The Mayor on January 1, 2011 at 10:17pm: Richard, what do you mean by a "copyright fund"? How does that work?

Comment by Meags on January 1, 2011 at 3:33am: This is a difficult subject on one hand they love the publicity on the other its a breach of privacy.
Personally being an artist i know the web is full of my work that i haven't authorized but there is a copyright fund that reimburses me.
The images of players etc are also someone else's fotos so you're breaching their copyright. The subject matter being a "personality" are we breaching their copyright im not so sure.

Comment by Mark / The Mayor on May 5, 2010 at 12:20am: I'm glad you saw this post Sharapovanovic. Be sure not to post pics that are copyrighted here for all the obvious reasons. I guess that is one way to know that you have become a successful site, when you start getting the attention of the lawyers. :-)

Comment by Sharapovanovic on May 4, 2010 at 11:25pm: Wow, thanks for the Picapp link. There are a huge number of excellent images there through which one can search by player, tournament, and year; it's very well organized!

Comment by Mark / The Mayor on December 1, 2009 at 9:40pm: Interesting! I just noticed the banner below is for a free stock photo site. Check it out.

Comment by Mark / The Mayor on December 1, 2009 at 9:38pm: That is a good source. Many photos on flickr already have permissions attached - they are easy to find with the advanced search feature as I outlined above. It seems like times they are a changing - I've been making websites since 1996 and the good ol' days of grabbing and sharing seem to be coming to an end.... at least when it comes to professional tennis photos.

Comment by tennischick on December 1, 2009 at 6:36pm: i would not use photos from Flickr without permission. however you can legally source photos from www.picapp.com

Comment by Mark / The Mayor on December 1, 2009 at 12:02pm: Hi Coach, unfortunately you can not unless you have permission from the photographer. Besides the many public photos on Flickr, I've found that all the people I've ever asked about using their copyrighted photos have given me permission.

Comment by CoachV - William Vazquez on October 20, 2009 at 12:13pm: Can you use umm... "Borrowed" PICs with out permission if you modify it or use pieces of it as long as you mention the owners.

Comment by Mark / The Mayor on October 16, 2009 at 3:11pm: Yeah, we're starting to get big enough where the hawks are hawkeyeing us. I guess we should take it like a compliment. :-) Anyway, definitely should stick to the rulezzzzz. I never knew just how MASSIVE the collection of tennis photos of flickr.com was before now! It's fun searching for the perfect pic.

So What About Copyrighted Content?

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