Good morning, Migraine and Headache Bloggers!
It's been far too long since we've posted anything here, and we ask your indulgence. So many things have been happening over the last year. Purple has been officially adopted as the awareness color for Migraine, Cluster Headaches, and other Headache Disorders. There have been several promising studies published from research, and the American Headache and Migraine Assocation (AHMA) a new patient-driven, patient-focused nonprofit has launched.
We'll be getting more information up here soon!
Today, we need to address the subject of images used in blogs. There appears to be considerable confusion about the ownership of images used online and when and whether it's appropriate and legal to use images found online.
One blogger asked to join our network, and when we visited his site, we found many familiar images on it. They were familiar because we'd seen them elsewhere online. When we asked where the images came from, the blogger replied, "Google Images." Oops! Google's Terms of Service clearly state:
"Using our Services does not give you ownership of any intellectual property rights in our Services or the content you access. You may not use content from our Services unless you obtain permission from its owner or are otherwise permitted by law. These terms do not grant you the right to use any branding or logos used in our Services. Don’t remove, obscure, or alter any legal notices displayed in or along with our Services."
It's not wise to use any image you find online without first contacting the owner for permission unless it's clearly stated, where you find the image, that it's permissable to do so. Many people think they can use images they find on services such as Flickr freely. Not so. On the page with each image, in the right column, there's a section with a header, "License." Many, if not the majority of the images on Flicker and other such services are not "free for the taking." The info may say "All rights reserved," or there may be a link to click for licensing the rights to the images.
That's a little primer about online images. You may wonder why we're talking about this. There's a good reason. Using images without permission is a copright violation, even if the image is marked as copyrighted. The protection is legal and automatic. None of us would want other people to copy our blogs and post them elsewhere without our permission. The use of images without permission is the same thing, and it's illegal. For that reason, we have to establish a policy of removing blogs from the network if they contain copyrighted images that are used without permission and not admitting new blogs to the network if they're using such images.
The easiest way to avoid issues is to simply not use an image if you're not sure that it's permissable and legal to do so.
While you're here, please take a look at our "About" page for information about HDBN's purpose and criteria for inclusion.
More to come soon!
Your HDBN Admins
