[Mike Irwin]

The person who took the photograph of the HK magazine is the owner of the copyright on that particular image; to be perfectly frank, I have no clue if dual copyright issues would be present. It doesn't matter how much it's been passed around on the internet, the law as it is currently written is quite clear -- the person who created it has copyright ownership of it.


This statement is very clear:

"Photographs and other images are also copyrighted. "Hotlinking" of images (so that it appears in your message) from other sites is also prohibited unless you own rights to the image. If you wish to share an image, provide a clickable link to it."

Until the courts move to sort out some of the issues that have been raised by the flurry of lawsuits that have been filed, TFL will be taking a very strict line.

Yes, this is a pain in the ass. But, right now, there are a lot of individuals and companies facing very expensive legal fights, or equally expensive "we're going to knuckle under and pay thousands of dollars to get this off our backs" settlements.

Staff does not intend to be caught up in such lawsuits. We don't intend for TFL's owner or parent company to be caught up in such lawsuits. And we certainly don't intend for TFL members to be caught up in such lawsuits.

In essence, THERE IS NO GRAY.