Hoping someone on here knows more than me on this; I was in the process of downloading a selection of photos from the internet for the purpose of putting together a folder for my screensaver when the thought of copyright infringement came to mind.

I'm guessing that this would still be classed as infringement unless the source of the photos has expressly stated otherwise? I know a lot of people state that these things are free for personal use but I simply do not want to make the assumption on that one.

As long as you're not distributing, publishing or making any personal gain from the images then I can't seen an infringement taking place.

As long as it is for personal use only then you would never be discovered if it is actually a problem.

Unless explicitly stated I always assume the image is copyrighted.
Even if I'm using the image for personal, non-comercial means, I always assume the image is copyrighted.
If I was using it for a screensaver folder the least I'd do is contact the owner of the image just out of courtesy to say that I'd like to use their image.
In most cases this would be fine, but I'd still abide by the owners request if they said I couldn't use it.
I've had people tell me that they are using my images as their desktop background - after the fact.
I'm okay with this, but it would be nice to have been asked to have the image used instead of told that it is being used.

Mark

I'm with Mark. Also, if you are using it for a screensaver at work, that usually counts as commercial use - as you aren't the only one who will see the artwork... The same goes for playing a radio, music on hold etc.

Personally I find the simplest rule is:

If it's not your file, you need to ask

How far does this extend?

If I wanted a screen saver of say Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls era) and do a google image search, quite often the same pics are on multiple websites without any copyright information or acknowledgement of source. Do I then go and track down the original image? How far do I go?

It's very easy for me to "right click and save as" (or prtscrn) images.

IMO I think for personal use eg startup screen, wallpaper, I wouldn't bother. Big_D talks about radio but I think that's because of performings arts rights or something where if you have a radio that others can hear, you need to pay a fee. Certainly, if I were to display something on a monitor that the general public would see, then I'd definitely ask permission.

With radio, it’s a certain number of people who can listen for free. After that limit then you have to pay up. In the UK, the Performing Rights people police this by visiting businesses and thteating action if they feel this is being infringed.

With images on the net, the rule is simple: if you don’t want it stolen, don’t upload it. I found with my Lego ZX81 project that a lot of people hotlinked my Flickr images. Good - that sends the viewers to me, and most people have provided a link to my Flickr stream or my Posterous article as well. However, some took the images and hosted it themselves. Again, not too fussed if they link back to the originals. A few took the images, hosted them and didn’t link back at all. I dropped comments on any blogs that did that asking for a link back. I would note that the images I upload to Flickr are 1024 px along the widest dimension anyway - I don’t upload the original sized images ever. If someone asks for them, then I’ll entertain sending them out for a fee. That project showed me how images can travel quite rapidly. If there is a next time, I’ll probably watermark them. I was pleased to see that the majority of people reporting that particular story credited me in some fashion though. Maybe that was just the subject matter and the audience being more sympathetic to such concerns.

My sister works with someone who strongly feels that images should be free and their creator has no claim on them, and f*ck you if you think otherwise.

EDIT:

There is a lot of concern over Pinterest and other similar sites which harvest images and provide little if any attribution. Even though I have a Pinterest account, I’m cautious about using it because of this.