I own a fansite, and recently, the legal department who owns the copyrights contacted me.

In a nutshell, they didn't want me to put advertisements on my site because they claim I am making monetary earnings off their images. Prior to this, I've received written consent to use their images if I state that they are copyright them and used with permission which I have done.

I receive 160k hits a day, 30k unique on average. Without any form of advertisements, I would simply not be able to afford the hosting costs.

Are they allowed to do this? They have requested that I also sign an agreement. :(

hmm i'd look into legal help if you have written consent.

Double check the fine print in the written consent. It probably says something like you have the right to use it for "personal non commercial display purposes". As soon as you have an ad on the website and make money off it, you aren't non commercial anymore, and you'll probably have to get a royalty agreement set up.

But, as interactive suggested, you should seek the assistance of a lawyer to read over everything ;)

If you have ads, there is money coming in, whether or not that is spent on hosting doesnt matter a whole lot. All they know is that you are receiving money off their images, something they dont want. There are photographer royalties, model royalties, agency royalties, contracts royalties, all that must be taken out of a commercially used image. Im pretty sure you arent giving them that.

Best advice: Talk to a lawyer.

As Akash said, double check the fine print.

Other than that, I'm not a lawyer, but I think since they are their images, the written consent means nothing. It's their work, and they reserve the right to do as they please with them.

I may be wrong, and for your sake, I hope I am!

Good luck

Zak

Half the time, in my experiences, its better just to take them down. Don't fight a battle that you don't have time to win.

This one's a tough call depending on the written consent and what exactly it says. If it says that you can use it for personal uses only, then the ads violate that clause.

I'd take them down as a safety measure and get a lawyer to read it over.

If the legal consent says nothing about "personal-use only", then I think you might have a case against it.

Do talk to a lawyer. You need real advice.
After doing that, I'd suggest writing a pleasant letter back to them, showing how much you get for the ads and how much you pay for hosting and other costs to show you're not profiting from the use of their images.
Ask them to cover the hosting costs if they want the ads off.
A lot of people really don't have a clue how little advertisers on the web pays and how much hosting costs for high traffic sites. They may think you're making thousands off the site every month.
A dose of reality might be all they need.

Originally posted by madmouser
A dose of reality might be all they need.

Reality is that revoking all rights to the content woudlnt hurt the artist a bit, as she doesnt see any money off of them. It wouldnt bother them in the least. They arent lossing out on anything.

Reality is that huynhk needs the photos and the artists has no reason at all to let them.

Telling them how many hits your site receives may be a very bad thing. If you only received 5 hits a day, they might ignore you, but once you tell them that 30,000 people a day come to your site, they may not like you as much.

Originally posted by huynhk
I own a fansite, and recently, the legal department who owns the copyrights contacted me.

Are they allowed to do this? They have requested that I also sign an agreement. :(

They own the copyright, so yes. Those pictures are 100% their property.

ahaha...the band isn't Metallica is it? :D

There are a lot of fansites that get more hits than the official sites. Having said that, it seems entirely bass ackwards to deny somebody that exposure. It'd be one thing if you were using their images to promote your own product, but it the advertisements are to help the site exist, then either they should be willing to help pay for it, or allow advertising.

But be that as it may, if they own the rights to the images/likeness, then they may have some leverage on you.

Heh, Metallica.

The only thing you can really do is tell your visitors how it is. And if the general public takes action and tells said artist/model/actress/whatever that they arent cool for it, than they may relax at the risk of losing fans (and thus profits).

This very often doesnt work though, look at the whole Nissan domain name issue.

My site doesn't really rely on their images. I can take them off that's simple, (although they have given me consent to use then they turned around and said they didn't)

The main problem is the advertising on my site. I just write game reviews, content and guides and strategies on how to play the game. Doing so, of course I have to mention the game name and the characters. Their claim is that by doing so, I am infringing on their intellectual copyright property, by merely referring to their names.

I am making advertising money off my content, not their characters. Their whole argument if me making money off their property.

Anyways, I will bring this to my lawyer on Monday and see what he says about this. Could this just be another case of corporate bullying?

If all you do is write reviews then you may not need their permission to use names of products or characters. It's a free speach/press issue. Magazines and newspapers do not need permission to write reviews of movies/art/products. If they did you would never see a negative review.

Just the same, ask your lawyer.

I have an idea :)

If it is hosting costs that is all you have to cover, feel free to contact me MSN/EMAIL at tech@brightlightwebsites.com and I think we could sort "something" out here..

Maybe a small banner that I dont pay for, and I host your site free. I think this would put their fight in the ****ter as A) you aint getting money for the add and B) The hosting ends up costing you nothing but some small add space.

Ahh wow that would be great! I'm going to fight it out with these people first. I'm am not going to get pushed around like this.

What is most outrageous, is they want me to stop everything, even advertising companies businesses etc because they claim I am making money out of their game characters etc and they want me to sign a "Fan Liscence Agreement".

Do you have MSN?

huynhk999@hotmail.com

Originally posted by Lamont
If all you do is write reviews then you may not need their permission to use names of products or characters. It's a free speach/press issue. Magazines and newspapers do not need permission to write reviews of movies/art/products. If they did you would never see a negative review.

Just the same, ask your lawyer.

Exactly, reviews, critisims, and the like are pretty exempt from copy right laws. That is why Amazon.com puts up excerpts of books they sell. Or you see screen caps in reviews of software, etc.

Talk to a lawyer first thing. If you cant get a hold of him now (not on retainer) than first thing Tuesday.

I thought you had maybe some model fansite that had a small discussion board and a large photo gallery of the model, in which case I would have to side with teh model under current law, but if its a review site, Im pretty sure you are n the clear.