High-quality unsigned photograph forum

[nowandagain]

Hi everyone

I was wondering whether it's possible to have a section where members can post high-quality images of celebrities.

This would make it easier for members to find photos and print them out. I've seen a few forums where they've charged a subscription fee for downloading high-quality, high-resolution photos (and I don't have a credit card - so I can't access the photos to print out.)

Thanks
nowandagain

[TheCollector]

Hi everyone

I was wondering whether it's possible to have a section where members can post high-quality images of celebrities.

This would make it easier for members to find photos and print them out. I've seen a few forums where they've charged a subscription fee for downloading high-quality, high-resolution photos (and I don't have a credit card - so I can't access the photos to print out.)

Thanks
nowandagain

Hi nowandagain

That is a really great idea (in theory!)

Unfortunately although photos might appear on the internet the fact is that "somebody" (often the photographer or the celebrity) owns the ©Copyright.

In practice it is often very difficult to enforce the ©Copyright on the internet as images are everywhere, but if Fanmail.biz openly offered photos to download from one central site then they would be leaving themselves wide open to prosecution.

The only way around this would be for Fanmail.biz to contact the ©Copyright holder and pay a distribution fee.

So for the time being it looks like we will have to do it the old way

Ian

[nowandagain]

Thanks Ian

Too bad it isn't going to happen....better stick to doing it the old fashioned (and sometimes annoying) way .

[Nissaea]

TheCollector,

hopefully you can clarify for me. i'm curious as to why fanmail.biz isnt already at that very same risk with the photos that are currently up alongside celebrities names in the database. true not all entries have one but there is photos on the site already. could you possibly explain why the sharing of HQ photos would increase that risk of copyright issues?

Hope that made sense.

[TheCollector]

Hey Nissaea

Actually there is not a great deal of difference when it comes to copyright infringement

The main difference though is that if Fanmail were offering H/Q photos available for download then they would be infringing any copyright.

However, the photos posted on the forum are technically mostly still in breach of copyright, but it is on the whole the member (poster) who is breaching the copyright not Fanmail.biz

Also, mass listing of photographs by Fanmail could constitute a business interest, whereby it could be argued that the website was making money from listing downloadable photographs.

In reality though, most of the legal threat of a member posting a picture is lost as the 'offending' picture has been autographed / endorsed by the person/celeb on it, and in most cases the celeb (at least in a small part) owns their own likeness.

i.e. in a rounabout kind of way, the celeb has authorised its usage once they have signed it. This is shown by the fact that if they did not want the photograph to be used then they would not have signed it.

Obviously, there is always a risk with anything, but since the world wide web is pretty unregulated it would be quite difficult to make a case stick to an individual member. Fanmail on the other hand would be taking a far greater risk as they could possibly be seen to be profiting from any such photograph lists

The same goes for the photos shown next to celebs in the database. Very often these photos are submitted my members. Otherwise, any other photos shown next to names in the database are the celebrities official promotional pictures.

It is the intent that these pictures are used to publicise the celeb, which is what they do on Fanmail

In reality though, if a database of pictures was formed like you suggest then the photos in it would not be the celebs "official" promotial pics, and the copyright is likely to belong to a whole variety of outside sources

Sorry if that doesn't make much sense, but as an ex-photographer that was how the law stood (at least when I studies it at College) (many years ago!!!)

Cheers,

Ian

[delores918]

Would it be possible to have a section where members could request help from other member for high quality photos. Then they could either email each other the photo or post where a high quality photo requested could be found on the internet?

[TheCollector]

Hi delores918

You can find some great ideas of where to find photographs using this link: http://www.fanmail.biz/mboard/viewtopic.php?t=9998

If you still can't find what you need, then feel free to leave a post on the Collecting Help forum requesting help from other members

Hope this helps!

Ian