Since Numista has used all the data from the SCWC catalogues to create the Numista catalog, which I suppose Numista was allowed to do by KM (since we now complain, that other sites use our images), I would like to know, if we're also allowed to use the images from Numista to enrich the Numismaster data base and enrich Numista with images from Numismaster?
But I have seen it far to often that people even refs mindlessly copy n' paste whole catalog entries which are protected by copyright.
It shouldn't be too hard to formulate simple sentences with your own words (with the help of catalogs), I don't mean half sentences that can't really be transformed that easily.
Or even whole paragraphs of books (most of the time quite useless information not concerning the item of the page anyway).
I have been a contributor to the SCWC catalogs for many years and have sent hundreds of images to KM for their inclusion in the numismaster file. My images were never copy righted and will never be, since I do not see any interest in that. I suppose those images are still my "intellectual" property? The same goes for the images supplied by my fellow contributors, I assume.
KM never took any images themself, otherwise they would have one of the biggest collections in the world, they have only collected the images from somewhere else (contributors, banks, museums etc), so can one say that their images "belong" to SCWC?
Cita: "Sjoelund"I have been a contributor to the SCWC catalogs for many years and have sent hundreds of images to KM for their inclusion in the numismaster file. My images were never copy righted and will never be, since I do not see any interest in that. I suppose those images are still my "intellectual" property? The same goes for the images supplied by my fellow contributors, I assume.
According to current copyright law (US law and the law of most countries) your images are copyright when created. There is no need to apply for a copyright (but your ability to sue and collect damages is affected by if and when you register a copyright).
If you didn't sign a document when donating the images you just allowed KM to use the images and didn't assign copyright to them. If you didn't give them an exclusive license you are free to use your images in any other project (and you still have some rights even if you gave them an exclusive license). The same applies to other contributors.
I would strongly recommend you use images from your own collection and not take them from Numismaster. The images on the web site may have a watermark (which might not necessarily be visible to the human eye or even easy to detect with software) that would allow them to claim the images were inappropriately copied. Numista doesn't want that problem.
Cita: "Sjoelund"KM never took any images themself, otherwise they would have one of the biggest collections in the world, they have only collected the images from somewhere else (contributors, banks, museums etc), so can one say that their images "belong" to SCWC?
True, but Numista would need permission from KM and possibly the original contributors to use them without worrying about legal issues.
Cita: "Idolenz"But I have seen it far to often that people even refs mindlessly copy n' paste whole catalog entries which are protected by copyright.
Coins and banknotes have motifs. It could be people, boats, houses, or whatever. To write a descriprion of the motif can never be copyrightet, since the motif is what it is. One cannot copyright how to descirbe something that everyone can see. Even though it's lazy work, it's no violation of the copyright law.
