Am I in breach of copyright infringement if I display a snapshot of a website that has used licensed imagery?

[leonie36]

I have received a letter from a well-known media company, demanding £1000 in damages for displaying one of their images on my website.

But here's the thing - I haven't.

I merely took a snapshot of a website that just so happens to have used one of their images as part of the design for that website, and the tracking software they have used believes that I have taken that snapshot purely to rip-off the image on that website, yet I only took a snapshot of the website as an example of good web design, nothing more.

Am I really liable for copyright infringement?

A good analogy would be an author paying a license to use a piece of artwork for his book cover, and then once all the books hit the stores, the artist seeks damages from all the bookshops for displaying instances of his artwork all over their store, because it features on all the books!

I looked through the 1988 patents act, and I am hoping that I am covered by something called 'Incidental inclusion of copyrighted material' - section 31.

Any help of guidance on this matter would be very helpful. Many thanks!

[madison86]

If you publish anything without the person/company permission then yes that is a breach of their copyright law so you need to remove it and email them back and say sorry, you won't do it again maybe they will forgive you because you did not know.

you cannot steal anything just because it's online music photos, video games etc. so you need to think about what your doing just because it's out there does not mean you can steal it. if you look at anything it's always has a copyright law

even at the bottom of the website it eather owned by the domain company the artists company or the person who drawn it

[artek57]

Tell them to look up the definition of "fair dealing" under UK copyright laws. Depending upon how YOU were using the photo, the incidental inclusion should be excused.

[larry]

In most cases it isn't. Bear in mind that copyright allows for what is known as "fair use". It is not an absolute prohibition on all forms of copying. Furthermore, not all material in every website is copyrighted anyway. Obviously, some abuse is still possible, which would be considered copyright infringement.