adding this smiley to my forum would be legal or not and why???

aren't they recommendable because they hinder the servers or something?

could be considered as stealing. Read this - http://www.piercelaw.edu/tfield/copynet.htm for further details on the internet laws.

adding this smiley to my forum would be legal or not and why???

aren't they recommendable because they hinder the servers or something?

Correct me, if I am wrong but I think it will be considered as stealing. Oh, yes, mummy, great link to refer to.:agree:

Amalia

could be considered as stealing.
My users desperately wanted those on my forum. Who is the legal owner of these smilies?

My users desperately wanted those on my forum. Who is the legal owner of these smilies?

mine tooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!

how do you get them legally?

@ufopsi, healthy, london25,

I think the best you can do is to contact the website owners of the smiley website and ask them for permission to use their smileys. It is very hard to tell who is the owner of the smileys - they've come a long way from their designers to the websites and so on. Contact the website owners/administrators - that's the best you can do.:agree:

I think the smileys graphic designer are the owners of the copyright.:confused:

I think the smileys graphic designer are the owners of the copyright.:confused:

Heh, that's not even taking into account any agreements made between the designer and their client. Makes it possibly more complicated, huh?

Unless those smilies are in the so-called public domain (and I'll bet the one in question here isn't) and you haven't secured permission, it's up to you to decide whether it's worth the risks. Adding a note like "please contact us if you find any copyrighted material on our site so we can resolve this amicably" won't stop an unreasonable party potentially having the law on their side from suing you.

he's not trying to sell the things.. jeeze

You would get a C&D before anything, then just take it down if that happens. Smileys are all over the place.

I think i'd be leaning another way if you were selling t-shirts with that on then, but you aren't trying to make any money. nobody is going to sue you. That's way over the top.

It's not real ethical to use them though knowing they're someone else's work, and considering they probably do have copyrights.

ON the other hand, some authors will tell you to grab them and put them on your server so you don't suck up all their bandwidth. But they'll want a link in return.

If you do use them put a disclaimer at the bottom of all pages they're used on stating the images/smileys are coprighted by their respective owners. If you get a C&D just abide by it's demands which will just be to take it/them down.

But who is the legal owner?

Probasbly never find out which is why the umbrella copyright statement

Just add and use it. If you get complaints later on you can remove it then, but most smilies are "open source".

If you do use them put a disclaimer at the bottom of all pages they're used on stating the images/smileys are copyrighted by their respective owners. If you get a C&D just abide by it's demands which will just be to take it/them down.Just the same as my opinion...A disclaimer normally comes of enormous help, so don't miss it out. If any questions and complaints pop up, you can always react immediately - take the smileys down and provide new ones.

Isn't that smiley a little bit on the large side!

Isn't that smiley a little bit on the large side!

I agree, but my members don't...

I think it's not allowed to just use any kind of smilies/icons you can fnid on the web. A lot of them do not come with the proper license. It's best to check this before you use them.

Smilies this big will probably disrupt the formatting of your forums posts. Tell your members you will give it a trial run, and I guess they'll change their mind ;) Or try shrinking it in Photoshop/imageready.

Smilies this big will probably disrupt the formatting of your forums posts. Tell your members you will give it a trial run, and I guess they'll change their mind ;) Or try shrinking it in Photoshop/imageready.

They didn't. :eek:

Isn't that smiley a little bit on the large side!

In most cases these smileys do really look a bit larger than normal but, a bit surprisingly, they come to fit perfectly well most forum designs:agree: