Am I infringing copyrighted photos?
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My blog is mainly about pictures, images, photos of objects of art (Baroque and Rococo religious scupltures) from museums all around the world, from auction houses, and from private collections as well. It dawned on me that I might be infringing copyright laws by publishing so many of those photos after a visitor asked about a photo I used in my blog and if I had permission (his permission) to incorporate it in the blog. The picture in question is a series of santos from his collection that I copied from a site that promotes art fairs in Brazil. So, basically, if my blog is educational and has as its main objective to promote the study, appreciation, and learning about santos ou saint figurines, would I be infringing copyright laws? How will I know from thousands and thousands of photos I have already uploaded to my blog which ones are indicative of copyright infringement? Should I simply delete the blog or are there other alternatives? Anyone out there to help me, for I am really worried about that. Thanks in advance.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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If you do not explicitly have permission from the copyright holder then posting any or all of those images could be a copyright violation. It depends on their copyright statement and how they have licensed them. Sometimes they have full copyright and you have to have permission. Sometimes they are Creative Commons and you can post them if you comply with their terms.
You have to investigate each and every image separately and then comply with their copyright notice and in most cases that might mean getting their permission to post them.
If that person that asked about the image and whether you had HIS permission to incorporate it contacts wordpress with a DMCA violation notice, wordpress in all likelihood will suspend or delete your site.
If I were you, until you can go back through and get permission for posting all those images, I would turn all those posts back into draft posts or pages so they do not show up on the site. Then as you go through and get permission for all the images you can again publish those posts. Any photo where you cannot get permission will have to be deleted from your posts and pages.
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If the images were in material they used as PR, eg press releases, etc, then you’re probably okay. There are also, remember, many free sources for images such as Flickr Creative Commons images.
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