Website Design Forum

Author

Clip Art

rhino_redux@yahoo.ca

2006-07-10, 7:41 pm

Does anyone know anything about the legalities of using clip art on web
sites?

I did a Google picture search and found a simple graphic I liked at a
website. It's a simple household article that is unrelated to the
website, which is religious in nature. It looks very much to me like
the religious site got it from a CD (or website) of clip art. Can I
help myself to this art and adapt it for my website? I want to use the
image for a site I am building for a local club. I will simply add the
name of the club to the image. There is nothing inflammatory about the
image and the club is non-profit so no one will make money from the
website or the logo I am trying to create.

Am I opening myself or the club to some kind of legal action because I
don't own a licence for this image?

Now, I realize that the odds of the original artist every noticing that
we are using the image without a licence are pretty remote and I doubt
that they would care much if they did find out but COULD I get in
trouble here? I can _IMAGINE_ a creative person jealously guarding
their rights and conceivably taking legal action, even if it seems very
unlikely in this case.

By the way, I'm not adverse to the idea of getting a legal licence for
this image but I'm darned if I know how to determine the source of the
art. I don't know where the religious site got the image and, unless
the person who composed the website is still around and remembers where
he/she got the image, I'm not sure they'd be able to track it down
either. Without that information, I don't know how to buy a licence for
the image.

--
Rhino

David Dorward

2006-07-10, 7:41 pm

rhino_redux@yahoo.ca wrote:

> Does anyone know anything about the legalities of using clip art on web
> sites?

The same as using any other creative work.

> I did a Google picture search and found a simple graphic I liked at a
> website. It's a simple household article that is unrelated to the
> website, which is religious in nature. It looks very much to me like
> the religious site got it from a CD (or website) of clip art. Can I
> help myself to this art and adapt it for my website?

Not without the permission of the copyright holder.

The website you found it on may have a license to use it (then again, they
may not and be using it illegally). While it might be in the public
domain - you should be sure of that before using the image.

> Am I opening myself or the club to some kind of legal action because I
> don't own a licence for this image?

Yes

> By the way, I'm not adverse to the idea of getting a legal licence for
> this image but I'm darned if I know how to determine the source of the
> art. I don't know where the religious site got the image and, unless
> the person who composed the website is still around and remembers where
> he/she got the image, I'm not sure they'd be able to track it down
> either.

You could ask...

--
David Dorward <http://blog.dorward.me.uk/> <http://dorward.me.uk/>
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