Alan Erskine added these comments in the current discussion du
jour ...

To continue the same argument here... where does it say the
images have to be original? As long as they are on-topic,
there should be no problem. As has been noted on .animals,
not all of the images shown on this group have ever been
original - you might want to talk to Mitchell about original
works - he's been posting here for some years now and he's not
the only one.

Also, if it is original work, you are placing that on a
public-access newsgroup; therefore, you have little say in
what is actually done to your images after they are posted -
how do you prove that you took them? There is no copyright
info attached; nobody can contact the OP (both Original Poster
and Original Producer) to ask for permission. Do you really
think people are simple looking at these images? I have
collected litterally thousands of images over the years - no
way of telling who the OP is or was.

You are mostly right about copyrights. Copyrights do not protect
ideas, they protect the expression of ideas. So, photographs are
expressions of the idea of capturing a particular subject to a
permanent media. A copyright is automatically granted to the
photographer. Now, it could happen that there are many
photographers taking almost identical photos as you have. They
all get an automatic copyright. Now, if one intends to defend
their copyright against infringers, one must register the
expression of the idea with the copyright office or a court case
cannot be heard. So, you are basically right that original
pictures posted here effectively enter the public domain because
most/all posters do not feel the need for formal copyright
registration and thus let their pictures go. Nothing wrong with
that.

What is wrong here is the notion that only original work is
allowed. If the collective group really wants to do that, it
should modify the FAQs and enforce them vigorously. But, they
should also be prepared for a huge drop in good content being
posted here if alternate sources of pictures are forbidden.

--
HP, aka Jerry

Don't be a fop or a blooter, make only pithy comments on Usenet