PaintShop Pro Tube Depot Proudly Presents:
Bel's
Lesson 4
We've covered "red flags," "green lights" and how plastering
disclaimers and the Fair Use Act all over one's site affords absolutely no
protection. Now we're going to talk about web sets. First of all, nobody should
ever offer a set (or pieces of sets) they haven't made themselves. I can't tell
you the number of times I've seen bits and pieces of
Pat's sets,
Moon & Back
and
Outlaw by Design (among others) scattered through albums &/or slapped,
willy-nilly, onto pages and offered for download as snags (especially Pat's
stuff). I've also seen entire sets loaded into albums and offered (although some
DO give you link back info, it's still a no-no).
Take a look at each of the above sites - with Moon & Back and Outlaw by Design,
it won't take you long to get a feel of what their web sets look like. At Pat's
site, you will be surprised at the number of items that you've probably seen all
over the place with no credit given her (her stuff is very popular with illegal
snaggers).
I will attempt to offer a brief overview from two directions - how to tell if:
Pieces of web sets being offered as independent snags - Welcome's, buttons, and
dividers as well as background tiles and strips.
Whole sets are being offered by someone who hasn't made them.
I think the biggest give away that something being offered is a web set piece is
that it will be on a textured/colored background of some sort, it probably won't
have a border around it (like, say, a calling card does) and there most likely
won't be any sort of watermark. One exception is Pat's stuff - she likes to use
white backgrounds so familiarizing yourself with her work would be extremely
useful.
If a site/group are offering background tiles/metallic strips (ie. a whole album
called "backgrounds") and say they got them from the net, do NOT use them. I
know very few people that offer this sort of work who would allow someone else
to redistribute them. They may offer them for you to use with no link back but
we all know by now that offering them for download elsewhere is a big, fat
no-no.
If folks are actually offering their own work, is it then safe to use? Well, if
you see no red flags, some green lights and they don't have obnoxious
disclaimers/fair use all over the place, probably. Do they tell you how they
created/where they got the image(s)? Is it an artists work? If so, do they offer
permission letters* and state you must link back to the artists site, too? For
example, I get most of my web set images from DMAT's Midnight Special board and
Beyond the Horizon's Web Works and I say so on the set. I also try to
acknowledge what I used to make the set. When in doubt, what do you do? Yes,
that's right, you ask.
Again, snoop through the site/albums - does each set come complete with a logo
button? Does the logo match the site you're browsing at? Are you finding bits
and pieces of sets being offered? Are you finding stray logo buttons? Does the
site/group ask that you link back to them if you use their stuff? Most places
that offer things they "found" don't usually require a link back (I'm not sure
if that's a good thing or a bad thing, lol). They may even be up front about it
and say, "I don't claim to have made.." whatever it is they are offering.
*Artists permissions: I would say that a lot who take the trouble to create a
whole set and state that they have permission probably do. However, those that
make sigs, snags & tags may not actually have permission to do what they're
doing. Some may even forge letters . A lot of artists will grant permission for
use thinking that the person asking is just going to display a few of their
works or make a set for themselves. When requesting permission, you must be very
specific on how you want to use the images. Are you making a sig, tag, card or
web set? Are they for your own use or do you want to offer them for others to
use? Are you planning to "alter" the image (i.e. feather it or isolate bits of
it for things like buttons)? I also don't know of many artists that grants
permission for tubes to be made. Another thing to keep in mind is the Terms of
Use/Code of Conduce (ToU/CoC) at whatever website host your using. For example,
at MSN you may not have adult content at your group, regardless of whether it's
general or mature, or to link to groups or sites with adult content. Therefore,
if you have a neat sig/tag/set you want to use but are required to link to (or
provide a non-clickable URL to) an artists site that has a lot of "erotic" art
you might want to double think that .
I have touched briefly on several thing that I want to go further into later -
one is how to use backgrounds and web sets properly and the other is the artists
permission thing.
Recap: Determine that the person offering the web sets is the one who created
them; check that they acknowledge where they got/how they made their images; try
to be sure that, if an artist's work is being used, that the person acquired
permission for exactly what they intended to do with the work; link backs
requested/required (especially for an artist's work); check the ToU/CoC of your
website host.
|
Lesson 1
|
Lesson 2
|
Lesson 3
|
Lesson
4
|
Lesson 5
|
Lesson 6
|
|
SGS Quiz
|
|
 
~
Use this Graphic to Link to this page. Save to your own hard drive...do not
copy/paste!
~
Return to:
School
house tut from Country Scraps, and apple tut from MidnightPSP.
Webset created with Jasc Paint Shop Pro
HTML code and graphics by ~Bel~
?2003 L. Reark, all rights reserved
~
Fair Use Info
| | | | |
