Reptile & Amphibian Forums

to use a picture of someone else's animal to represent your business,i.e. on business cards etc.
i have a picture of a really nice animal that i would like to use on my business cards, it's not my animal and it's not my intent to claim it as such. would it be unethical to use it?

I don't know the legalities of it all~ but ethically you need the permission of whoever owns the picture.
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
The Red Dragons Den
Do not meddle in the affairs of Dragons~ for you are Crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!

If you took the picture, it's yours. However, I would question the use of another person's animal to represent your business, unless of course, you produced the animal and then sold it. Do not use an animal that you have not owned or produced as advertisement. Simply lacks class.

Kassandra
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Kassandra Royer
Royer Reptiles

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signature area edited.

Edited on March 18, 2007 at 15:46:51 by PHWyvern.

>>If you took the picture, it's yours. However, I would question the use of another person's animal to represent your business, unless of course, you produced the animal and then sold it. Do not use an animal that you have not owned or produced as advertisement. Simply lacks class.
>>

It does not matter if you owned the animal or not. If the photo was taken by someone else it is their photo - not yours to use. Using another person' photos regardless of where you found the photo for any reason without permission from that person is considered copyright violation. The only exception to this is if the photo was clearly labeled as being "public domain". Just because something is found on the internet where the public can view it does not automatically make it public domain - it needs to be declared as public domain by the owner to be free of copyright.
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PHWyvern

I'm with PHWyvern on this. It could lead to legal trouble. If you know whos it is just email them and ask permission. The worse that could happen is you'll be told no. In lieu of all this, find someone to take a good pic for you and use it.
JMHO

Quig
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Don't interupt me when I'm talkin' to myself

i have emailed them,haven't gotten a response yet. i had an awesome pic of one of my animals but my comp took a major dump and i didn't have a backup file. it was the perfect pose.

also i've decided , from all the negative feedback, that even if i do get permission, i'm not going to pursue it any further. i never had any intentions of trying to fool anyone, i just wanted something to really catch peoples eye. i'm sure, as many of you know, you need every little advantage you can get when you get started in the business. the big guys are hard to compete with.
i started this post because, as i said in another reply, i discussed the idea with some friends, one of whom felt as though it might be false advertising. i can see his point but i wanted more feedback. now i've got it.

i don't know about "legally" ... but, in my opinion you should ask the person who owns/took the photo before using it to promote your business in any form...

~ Mike

I think if you have to ask that question then you already know the answer.
Kevin
Link

thanks for that insightful piece of info kevin!!!! you're a big help.
the picture i would like to use is a really great picture, and i'm not trying to deceive anyone and claim that its mine or one i produced. i would like to use it simply from a marketing standpoint because it's the kind of photo that really catches people's eye. i have emailed the owner of the picture and am waiting on a response. as of now i have not done anything with the photo but in talking with some other people about my ideas there was a concern of possible false advertising. that is why i posted the original question.

I feel that if you use a pic of a morph that you dont have or the animal isnt even your's.A red flag would raise in my mind.That what else are you not being honest about.Besause in this industry honesty will get you far.
Kevin
Link

*IF* you TOOK the picture yourself, then it's yours to do whatever you want with.

If it is someone else's picture then it is copyrighted by law and you cannot use it.

Say you took a picture of someones dog, then it's your photo to do whatever you want with.
If you found a picture of someones dog, then you cannot do a single thing with it by law.

As a semi-professional photographer I can tell you that if you take a picture of someone elses property (snake, dog, cat, house, car ect.) you can not use it for financial gain with out a release from the owner of the property. The exception would be if you took a general picture that included the property but it was not the focus. Example: a picture of several dogs playing in the park or if you took a picture of a row of houses not just a single house.

Jeff

The property release law is designated more towards significant looking structures. Example I can't put a picture of the Eiffel Tower or White House on a business card without a release. I can however drive through a neighborhood and take a picture of someones home and use it.
Dogs, cats, fish, snakes, birds, are not part of this unless it's Lassy, Mr. Ed, the Taco Bell chihuahua, Flipper, etc.

thats the way i understood it . but if it creates this much fuss then it's not worth it. i'm not looking to make enemies. there's enough bad apples in the business already. i'm not looking to be another!!!

"Copyright infringement" pretty much says it all. If it is not yours, then you need permission from the person that does own the image if you intend to use the image.

If I remember correctly the following statement is this forums stance on copyright infringement.

Posting copyrighted documents or photographs here without the owners permission is a violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). If you have an item that was used here without your permission, contact our Interim Designation of Agent to Receive Notification of Claimed Infringement

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Kyle
www.royalvariations.com

"be safe, be happy and dont let anyone make you afraid" David Coverdale