Can You Send Copyrighted Images in Email?

[EvilWizard]

What is the name of your state? VA

Another question for the copyright guru's. I found a website that has great IT-related cartoons on it called http://www.glasbergen.com/cat.html . The website implicitely states that the cartoons are copyrighted and the images themselves have both the copyright notice and the website of the content on them...

That being said is it considered copyright infringement to send an image such as the ones on this website within an email to another person without express permission of the owner? I have been trying to find a definitive answer via Google, but everything sidesteps around this topic. I figured Div could answer this one easily.

Thanks.

 

[JETX]

That being said is it considered copyright infringement to send an image such as the ones on this website within an email to another person without express permission of the owner?

Yep. No problem... as long as they are NOT being used commercially and the copyright notice remains.

 

[EvilWizard]

Merci Beaucoup mon ami!

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? VA

Another question for the copyright guru's. I found a website that has great IT-related cartoons on it called http://www.glasbergen.com/cat.html . The website implicitely states that the cartoons are copyrighted and the images themselves have both the copyright notice and the website of the content on them...

That being said is it considered copyright infringement to send an image such as the ones on this website within an email to another person without express permission of the owner? I have been trying to find a definitive answer via Google, but everything sidesteps around this topic. I figured Div could answer this one easily.

Thanks.

To be completely nit-picky, this would technically be copyright infringment -- you are making an unauthorized reproduction and distributing it. But, like JETX noted, unless there is commercial use in some way, then the copyright holder is unlikely to notice or care.

But JETX's statement is not 100% correct -- there is no blanket "free pass" when the use is noncommercial. Noncommercial use may be a "fair use," but it is not necessarily so -- and some commercial uses may be "fair uses" as well. JETX's statement is a reasonable rule of thumb, but there are situations where it doesn't apply.

 

[JETX]

JETX's statement is a reasonable rule of thumb, but there are situations where it doesn't apply.

Yep. And I really didn't want to make this into a Masters thesis trying to detail all the minutae that could qualify or exclude.

 

[divgradcurl]

Yep. And I really didn't want to make this into a Masters thesis trying to detail all the minutae that could qualify or exclude.

Understood.