Picture Permission

chickenwarrior1 · Postby **chickenwarrior1** » July 5th, 2004, 4:17 pm

Hey critic,
I am currently in the process of creating my own Video Game web page, and was just curious to as how you accuired the rights to use pictures (screen shots) from IGN and other sites? How did you go about asking? Are you limited to older screen shots? Just curious...thought it might help me with my site!

THANKS AGAIN!

chickenwarrior

Postby **VideoGameCritic** » July 5th, 2004, 4:59 pm

Yes, you definitely want to get permission first.

I got permission from all of the sites that provided the screenshots for my site. I explained that I only use one, thumbnail-sized picture per review. I also told them I would include a link to their site on all pages where their pictures were used.

Most of the sites were pretty friendly, but many did not respond to me at all. It took me a lot of time, effort, and emails.

Good luck,
Dave

Eiskis1 · Postby **Eiskis1** » July 6th, 2004, 9:14 am

I've never asked a permission from anyone. I'd say you're pretty much free to use the stuff you fing on the net.

BTW, try [url=http://www.gamescreenshots.com/index.asp]GameScreenshots[/url].

chrisbid1 · Postby **chrisbid1** » July 6th, 2004, 9:47 am

then there is the novel idea of capturing your own screenshots

chickenwarrior1 · Postby **chickenwarrior1** » July 6th, 2004, 11:21 am

How on earth would you capture your own screen shots?

chickenwarrior1 · Postby **chickenwarrior1** » July 6th, 2004, 11:40 am

Thank you Eiskis for that link! It doesn't have so many older shots, but it's still cool. Critic, you might want to check this out to.

This is from the FAQs page of www.gamescreenshots.com

[QUOTE]Question: Can I steal your shots from your site?
Answer: Yes! Feel free to take what you wish! We believe in the free distribution of screenshots and our site is based on that! Legally no one but the developers and publishers own the rights to screenshots![/QUOTE]

http://www.gamescreenshots.com/faq.asp

Postby **VideoGameCritic** » July 6th, 2004, 6:31 pm

[QUOTE=Eiskis]I'd say you're pretty much free to use the stuff you fing on the net.
[/QUOTE]

[sarcasm]Wow, are you a real lawyer?[/sarcasm]

You can say whatever you want, but that doesn't mean anything. My reviews for example are copyrighted and legally cannot be used without permission.

Screen shots are a different case, but I would still seek permission before using any graphic, and always give credit to the source.

Yes I do use screenshots from www.gamescreenshots.com, and they encourage the use of their pics. Other sites like Atari Age or IGN might be less tolerant of using their images without permission however. I recommend not making empty assumptions.

Eiskis1 · Postby **Eiskis1** » July 7th, 2004, 9:31 am

Well, no harm has come to me.

chickenwarrior1 · Postby **chickenwarrior1** » July 7th, 2004, 12:49 pm

I agree with the Critic. You have to be carefull using those pics. There is alot of sites like www.gbacentral.net (currently under construction converting to www.dscentral.net) that are very protective of thier "exclusive" material and you might get in big _____ for using their stuff.

Still, I believe if your taking pictures of the net that are scans of game boxes, you will allways get away with that. Nobody really cares, cuz your scan and their scan are gonna' look identical anyways.

Another weird thing about screen shots - www.gamescreenshots.com pretty much just takes pics from sites like www.ign.com and than says your free to use them, when IGN would be very protective. Yes www.gamescreenshots.com has permission...but IGN doesn't know what your doing with their shots.

Kinda weird.

chickenwarrior1 · Postby **chickenwarrior1** » July 7th, 2004, 12:51 pm

Oh and Eiskis... what the name of your site? What's the URL?