Hello everybody, Is there any copyright rules & regulations using photographs in internet without knowing the concern person.If not there must be an international one.I will be glad if any one response my question.

Thank You Mohammad Irfanul Islam. Darkroom Section. Drik Picture Library Ltd. Dhaka,Bangladesh URL:http://www1.drik.net

-- Mohammad Irfanul Islam (darkroom@drik.net), May 12, 1998

Answers

Yes, photographs on the Web are usually copyright, rather like photographs you find anywhere else. The exact legal situation will depend on various national rules, and I'm not an expert, but the general idea is that you are not allowed to use these photos by making copies without the copyright holder's permission. If you can't find who that is, then you can't copy the photo.

This even applies to downloading a photo to your own computer. However, if this is only for your personal non-profit use, the copyright-holder is unlikely to ever find out, and probably wouldn't mind anyway. But copying such pictures and re-publishing them on your own site would be a strict no-no.

-- Alan Gibson (gibson.al@mail.dec.com), May 22, 1998.