Hello to the group,

I would appreciate some advice as to the issue of when it's permissible to post an image, and when it should be avoided due to potential problems with copyright and/or ownership legalities. Specifically, should I shoot in a place such as Mystic Seaport, or any other tourist attraction, could those photographs I would take there be uploaded to this forum, without creating a problem for myself or APUG due to said legalities/

It's a pretty basic question I know, but being a strict amateur, I have never used my photographs for anything other than my own amusement. But considering that I would like to post some of them here, makes me realize I need to be careful with matters like this.

Regards, and thanks very much for the help.

George

George,
Walter's post is wrong on many levels. Don't post other people's work or images of people that you don't have authorization to and you should be fine. The lovers’ of rules and lawyers (when the two can be distinguished) will likely chime in with the minutia.

George -

Posting on APUG is for education and comment - and is totally non-commercial. Therefore, there should be no issues with posting any of your own photography.

Actually, Mystic Seaport is a very strong supporter of amateur photography and encourages the use of images captured on their property in various photographic activities. I don't know if they still do it, but for years they sponsored an annual "Photo Day" on the first Saturday after Labor Day. They arranged to have their staff dress in period costume to serve as photographic models, and the held a competition to select the best images from each year's event for a show the following year. And they also allowed workshops to come into the museum on Photo Day to work with their models. It used to be quite common for photo groups from throughout the Northeast to charter buses to bring members into Mystic for the day. But they do discourage use of images captured in their museum for any commercial use and won't allow their staff to sign model releases..

If they are YOUR photos you can post them wherever you want.

Caveat: unless you took them in a venue where photographing was not permitted (e.g. at a concert).

However, even those pics are probably okay to post here since you are not seeking remuneration.

Certainly your pics at Mystic Seaport are okay.

Figure it this way. If you were "allowed" to take pictures at a given location - they you are "allowed" to post them here.

Thanks everyone for the help with this. I think I can probably muddle through with the explanations you have provided. One other thing, I used Mystic Seaport only as an example, but probably didn't explain that very clearly.

George

John:

I don't want to chime in with rules, or minutia - I want to see the bad puns I missed :):)

Matt