Photos for a book?

[fishy luver]

I am wrighting a book identifying tons of aquarium fish species. I am not sure what the copywright laws are for the photos for my book but does anyone have photos of any species of fish I could use for it. I will give credit to the photographer.

I don't want to cite a million different books and websites because that would take forever and ruin the overall look of my book. Thanks for any help.

 

[hann1bal]

Go to Google Images and under "Search Tools" near the top is an option called "Usage Rights" and set that to either "Labeled for Reuse with modification" or "Labeled for reuse"

You can also try a site like https://pixabay.com/ that says:

"All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required"

You should be able to search and find a pic of almost ANYTHING that is allowed to be freely used with citation. Good Luck.

 

[fishy luver]

awesome I am soooooo exited :dance: :rollface:

 

[fishy luver]

uhhhhhh little problem I cant find a blue assessor, yellow assessor or any other uncommon anywhere so I might still need a little help from good photographers

 

[farfromsea]

Get on Flickr and contact the owners of pictures that appeal to you and see what sort of deal they will cut for image rights.

 

[Misled]

I'm guessing you've never written a book or spoke to a publishing company about what to expect. They will want proof of permission for every photo in the book. Even if you take it from the net, they will want a release signed by the photographer. They will not want to take the chance of being sued for a pic of a fish.

Hire a photographer. Then you own the rights to the pics. There's no question.

 

[Sk8r]

That is true. Every individual photo needs some sort of documentation as to ownership of rights, who took it, (if it were human it would need a 'model release form') and any copyright. When the book is copyrighted, it will need a statement about the photos, copyrighting all of them collectively, excepting separate listing on the copyright page re any photos that are there under permission of another copyright holder. To do otherwise is illegal, and opens the publisher to lawsuits.

 

[fishy luver]

sounds complicated :hmm3:

 

[hann1bal]

You can simply document the URL along with the image (for images taken from the public domain) like i listed above.

I disagree that its that complicated, since almost everything else falls under something called "fair use". It is ambiguous so do some googling on the matter, for example here is a diagram to tell if you can use an image or not:

http://lifehacker.com/follow-this-chart-to-know-if-you-can-use-an-image-from-1615584870

The bottom line is: If you really want to write this book then write it! just track the location of each image, and worry about licensing issues once you have a publisher. People do it this way ALL THE TIME. If there are specific fish you cant find just move on with a placeholder image. If at time of publishing you need a few images - you can buy licensed ones or ask for permission like the post above recommended.

Good luck.

 

[Misled]

Sorry, but just because a picture is in the public domain, it doesn't give someone the right to use them for their own purposes. Most photographers have copyrights written within their photos. I have photos here on RC that have also been printed in reference books. Yes, I still had to give permission to the publishing company after permission was given to the writer of the book. I have sold pictures to others. They have the right to that picture only. I still hold the rights to the image. In other words, he can't take that image, copy it and sell it to someone else. It's mine.

 

[hann1bal]

Sorry, but just because a picture is in the public domain, it doesn't give someone the right to use them for their own purposes. Most photographers have copyrights written within their photos. I have photos here on RC that have also been printed in reference books. Yes, I still had to give permission to the publishing company after permission was given to the writer of the book. I have sold pictures to others. They have the right to that picture only. I still hold the rights to the image. In other words, he can't take that image, copy it and sell it to someone else. It's mine.

I agree 100%, my point is either use images that are specifically marked as creative commons (or a similar license) and therefore had the licensing cleared or write the book and worry about images at a later time.

I don't agree with telling someone that wants to write a book, nope its too hard just forgot it. There are tons of websites that simplify this for you. Google image search is a lame example - but they wouldn't have added that search option if it wasn't an issue many creators have to deal with.

 

[hann1bal]

I also shouldn't have said "Public Domain" as just because its in the public domain doesn't mean you can use it. You'll want to verify the license of each image (before publishing) but don't let that stop you before you even start your project - who knows you may change focus half way through.

 

[snorvich]

Sorry, but just because a picture is in the public domain, it doesn't give someone the right to use them for their own purposes. Most photographers have copyrights written within their photos. I have photos here on RC that have also been printed in reference books. Yes, I still had to give permission to the publishing company after permission was given to the writer of the book. I have sold pictures to others. They have the right to that picture only. I still hold the rights to the image. In other words, he can't take that image, copy it and sell it to someone else. It's mine.

What he said. In another life I used to sell usage rights on some of my images but they were for highly restricted use only and the agreement specified terms and conditions.

 

[Misled]

I don't agree with telling someone that wants to write a book, nope its too hard just forgot it.

You need to look at who said that.

sounds complicated :hmm3:

That's the person that started this thread. There are also things about "creative commons" I don't think you understand. While it may give "permission" to use an image, it doesn't give permission to profit off an image. It can be a very sticky slope. That's the reason publishers require a release for every image from the photographer.

 

[fishy luver]

I think i am regretting starting this conversation

 

[Misled]

Get a good camera. Take the pics yourself. Most LFS's I've been in don't mind. Who knows better what you want than yourself.

 

[IPT]

Lots of good suggestions and information here. When I had images printed a release was always required along with the image.

That being said it's been years since I've dealt with stuff like that. We are in a new era now. Mush more digital with tons of royalty free images available.

The best information posted on here was to contact the publishers you are considering. Undoubtedly they will be able to provide you with the most current and accurate information. Things are changing every day in this digital era.

 

[BeanAnimal]

You can simply document the URL along with the image (for images taken from the public domain) like i listed above.

I disagree that its that complicated, since almost everything else falls under something called "fair use". It is ambiguous so do some googling on the matter, for example here is a diagram to tell if you can use an image or not:

http://lifehacker.com/follow-this-chart-to-know-if-you-can-use-an-image-from-1615584870

The bottom line is: If you really want to write this book then write it! just track the location of each image, and worry about licensing issues once you have a publisher. People do it this way ALL THE TIME. If there are specific fish you cant find just move on with a placeholder image. If at time of publishing you need a few images - you can buy licensed ones or ask for permission like the post above recommended.

Good luck.

Respectfully, nothing could be further from the truth. The process is complicated and any respectable publisher will require a signed terms of use for each photograph. They will NOT accept a "URL" or any of the silly public domain status, fair use arguments or other commonly used copyright status statements like creative commons.

Why?

One of 100 easy example: Lets say I take a phota and I publish it to my website and EXPLICITLY grant public permission and fair use under creative commons for ANYBODY to use the photo for ANYTHING. A year or two passes and somebody offers to purchase the photograph from me. I sell the photo and remove it from my site. The new owner decides that the photo is private property and cannot be used. Like it or not, anybody who used the photo under the creative commons statement is no infringing. Say that photo was circulated in a 10,00 copy press run. Say the new owner wants $10 per impression... or $100 per impression. Lawsuit city... Forget the debate about if the sale, after granting public rights, is ethical or legal, it happens daily. In fact, there is an entire cottage industry run by several groups of lawyers that do just that. They buy (in bulk) entire photo collections published under creative commons, they then use image finding crawlers to find copies of those images published to websites and sue (or threaten to sue) the folks who used the images (properly) under the original creative commons license.


Sorry, but the reality is that intellectual property, copyright-able mediums and digital bits and bytes make for an extremely complicated legal structure.

 

[Tinpanva]

Sorry, but just because a picture is in the public domain, it doesn't give someone the right to use them for their own purposes. Most photographers have copyrights written within their photos. I have photos here on RC that have also been printed in reference books. Yes, I still had to give permission to the publishing company after permission was given to the writer of the book. I have sold pictures to others. They have the right to that picture only. I still hold the rights to the image. In other words, he can't take that image, copy it and sell it to someone else. It's mine.

ROFL 100% of my stuff contains copyright info in the metadata, and about 75% registered since 2012. I WISH someone would steal it, need a new lens. :spin1: