Fanpop Etiquette General Fanpop etiquette Fragen

harold posted on Nov 05, 2008 at 06:01PM
This is a thread to ask questions and discuss what is acceptable and not acceptable in terms of Fanpop etiquette, as distinct from questions on "How do I do X on Fanpop?" which should be aimed at the link, or someplace similar. To put it another way, this is the place to ask "One can do this, but should one?"-type questions.

Fanpop Etiquette 3 Antworten

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Vor mehr als einem Jahr germany123 said…
yarrr added to my updates :)
Vor mehr als einem Jahr antitheft said…
Okay, I will ask the first one. Fanpop users can post pictures without giving any credit to the owner and without asking permission from the owner; however, should a Fanpop user do this?
Vor mehr als einem Jahr harold said…
No, of course they shouldn't. This has been discussed many times in fora and articles in the past (many are linked in this spot), but let me summarize my take on the major points:

* because images are actually posted on Fanpop, not linked to another site, they're the easiest content to pass off as your own creation. Doing this is lying. Even if you don't intend to suggest that the image is yours, when you post it without a credit that at least conveys the information that you didn't create the image, that is all people can assume.
* The creator of an image should receive whatever kudos or critique due the image. That chain of feedback reinforces the desire on the part of the image creator to go on creating images. Giving credit where it isn't due discourages artists from producing art.
* People (or, often, organizations) that provide images have a legal right to their content: this is called copyright (basically, the right to copy the material). Copying images for which you do not have copyright is against international law.
* Most copyright holders simply require that an acknowledgment of their copyright in order to copy the image. Thus, a proper image credit will avoid legal trouble. Not providing copyright credit is asking for legal trouble.
* Most copyright holders won't bother suing you (though some might sue Fanpop) for copyright infringement. Instead, they would contact Fanpop with an order to remove their content or face prosecution. The images would then be removed, which would likely have been allowed to stay if they'd be properly credited. Images without credits are more likely to be deleted without notification to the user who posted them.
* Users who post copyrighted content to Fanpop are in violation of the link. Violators of the Terms of Service - particularly users who have posted content which the copyright owners have required be removed - get banned from the site. Posting copyrighted content may get you banned from Fanpop.

Those six reasons seem a sufficient argument for not posting uncredited images, to me.