A Moral Question

[DAS]

Is it wrong to use an image from the web; that I otherwise would have to pay for, simply because the Note makes it possible?

The other day was my nieces 12th birthday. Because of work and a bit of procrastination, I missed the opportunity to buy her a birthday card.

So I thought, I'll just send her an eCard from my Galaxy Note.

I pulled up an eCard website, selected the image I wanted, and then went to pay for the eCard so I could send it.

However, it dawned on me that I can, using the Note, simply take a screen shot of the webpage and eCard that I want, and then using the precision of the S-Pen, crop out all of the advertising around the image and then save it to the gallery. I can then personalize the card within S-Memo and send her a nice personalized birthday greeting, incorporating THEIR image, via a free text message without buying the card from the eCard website (which is what I did!).

At first I was quite impressed with myself and what the Note allowed me to do, but then my conscience began to weigh on what I had just done, and I began to think that just maybe what I had done was morally wrong?

 

[jcdaniels]

Hmmm. Personally I find it to be an issue. A few short years ago I would've done it. But that was before I rededicated my life. Tough call.

 

[dmmarck]

Morally, that's up to you. Legally, I'm sure there's all sorts of copyright stuff going on there.

 

[superakuma]

It depends on where you got the image. If it is from the artist's page just ask them and tell them what you plan to do with it. Most likely they will be fine with it because you are NOT making any money out of it.

If you grabbed the photo from Flickr you are also safe because everything on Flickr is license under Creative Commons. Again since you are not making any money out of it legally you are safe.

I am a professional photographer and this subject comes up a lot in my field. Some artist are very protective with there work while some won't care because you are not making any money out of it.

I am not a lawyer and I can't give you any legal advice but honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about it if you used the image.

 

[GMJeff]

How about a site that has free eCards?