Image Credits

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

“Arctic Wolf Fire”
By Tom-in-Silence

I recently made a post about posting/sharing pictures online and not crediting the artist. On my websites I try to place a link from the pictures I use to an Image Credit page where I list the artists and their websites.

On my blog, my wolf images come from the U.S. Park Service, Wolfcreek Foundation or Wolf Haven International.

If the image comes from somewhere else, I try to make a caption for that image in the post. And I will link the image to the artists site. Like the fire wolf here by Tom-In-Silence.

I don’t like it when people steal my work and I try very hard to be sensitive of the copyrights of others. It doesn’t take much extra effort to be respectful to others who work equally as hard as I do on their work.

In general, copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection. More information can be found @ http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf

If I have an image that has not been credited and you know where it comes from, please let me know so I can post the credit.

I encourage others to think about the hard work of writers and artists first and to respect their rights as you would want others to respect your work. Don’t use information from other writes, or pictures on your blog, website or post pictures on Facebook, Twitter or other social network without listing the copyright of the original artist or writer.

If you are a writer, blogger or artist, make sure your online presence has a form of Terms & Conditions and copyright information. By visiting this site you are agreeing to the Terms of Use Springwolf Reflections. As such, violation of these terms may result in legal prosecution.

This is the stuff that makes the lawyers happy. It’s all the legal hereto’s and therefore’s, but it’s important and defines all the copyright terms for the graphics and intellectual property displayed on this site. Please don’t assume you can repost information on your site without permission, without giving credit to me or linking the information back to the original source.

Protecting Your Intellectual Work

If you are a blogger, artist or have your own website there are three components to defining your legal rights to your own material.

Make sure your overall site has a Terms & Conditions page
Now this is one page on my site that I will allow others to copy and update for their own sites/blogs.
Make sure you place a short paragraph on the front page of your website, or the sidebar of your blog to state your conditions and link to your conditions page. By doing this you are clearly stating what the terms are for visitors to your page. They can’t say I didn’t know it, or didn’t see your terms & conditions page when you have a link to it on the front of your website or on the bottom of your sidebar on your blog. This doesn’t have to be big and text intensive. Look at the one I use here on my blog. It’s a simple graphic (yes that I update every year) along with a caption attached to the graphic.
Duplication of any material, articles or graphics on this site, in whole or in part, is strictly prohibited. By using this site, you are agreeing to our Terms & Conditions. In general, copyright registration is a legal formality intended to make a public record of the basic facts of a particular copyright. However, registration is not a condition of copyright protection. More information can be found @ http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf

What You Can Do

You can help stop the illegal proliferation of copy written material.

Here are a few artist sites that people like to “steal” work from. When you see someone doing this, make a comment about it and try to post who the artist is and what their website is.

Josephine Wall
Lena Liu
Jonathon Bowser – famous for his Goddess Art
Johannus Boots – famous for his Illusion Art
Carole Bourdo – known for her Native American Art
Rassouli
Julie Fain – known for her fairies, dragons, etc.

If you find an image that isn’t credited and you don’t know who created it, you can try Google’s new “Search by Image” utility. This search allows you to upload an image or point to an image on the web by URL and find other places on the web where it’s found. Doing this might lead you to who the original artist is.