Is it legal to use webcam pictures I found on the net?

I'm not 100% sure... but I would not use pictures of people without their consent.

those and any other pictures are copyrighted to the person who took them, and depending on the topic (if it's a person), may need a model release - a form allowing use of the image.
Can you be sued? you sure can, if it was a person in the image you could get sued twice, once by the person taking the pic (in control of the cam) and the person in them, not 100% on the who took them part for webcam as is usually same person but normally both parties can sue.
If you charge to view them, they can sue you for even more, as it's potentially an income they are loosing out on - NEVER charge to view other peoples work without written permission from owner (and or model)

Thanks a lot of clearing this up.

-Jay

Interesting. I did find a few sites where the owners of the sites are posting cam pictures they found on the net and chat rooms. I guess those guys are walking on thin ice.

no way man!

They'd never find your website to beable to ask you to remove them anyway. There's all sorts of legal boundaries over this, and selling access to their pics would make it much worse I think.

best to just leave it alone, mate.

This post doesn't exist ok

While it is illegal to use the pictures many people still do, the changes of being caught are very slim, but if you do get caught you could loose everything. More often than not you'd first be asked to remove them, but if you are making money off them could just get a big bill.
There is a big difference between posting on a forum, blog etc as an example or a 'oh look at this' type thing than making money from, one can be passed off as an honest mistake, the other a mortal sin

Ok, I've already given up the idea of starting such a website, but topic is still interesting. =)

What if the Webmaster is using pictures that people post on forums and blogs? If he downloads and uses them on a paid site, would that person really sue the Webmaster? I mean, they probably have the rights to. But consider this scenario:

- A Webmaster used 1000 pictures of 100 people and made $1000 from his site. Out of the 100 people who's pictures are shown on the site, 2 people somehow found out about it and sued the owner of this site. From what I can imagine, the 2 people can probably sue for 2% of the profit, which is $20.

Does that sound logical? I mean, they can't really sue and say it's a crime to use their pictures on a site and try to put the Webmaster in jail, can they?

See http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html for an example of how that $20 profit can cost you more than $20:

You can get injunctions, which could shut you completely down until settled, legal costs to handle all the court stuff (you do get what you pay for with lawyers). If you are asked to prove you removed the material, this could require you to request written documentation from the hosting company indicating when the files no longer existed (yeah a big ridiculous requirement).

Since you used your computer to make the site, there is the possibility that you loose your computer(s) during the case as evidence.

In you example of "can probably sue for 2%", see: the copyright owner is required to present proof only of the infringer's gross revenue, and the infringer is required to prove his or her deductible expenses and the elements of profit attributable to factors other than the copyrighted work. it is up to YOU to prove how much of the money you collected came from people that NEVER saw the infringing image.

Or they could go for statutory damages, anywhere from $750 to 30,000. From the next paragraph, it looks like it is better to say you are guilty and didn't know any better. As i read it, if they have to prove you are guilty, then they can get up to 150,000.

Even more detailed: In a case where the copyright owner sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that infringement was committed willfully, the court in its discretion may increase the award of statutory damages to a sum of not more than $150,000. In a case where the infringer sustains the burden of proving, and the court finds, that such infringer was not aware and had no reason to believe that his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright, the court in its discretion may reduce the award of statutory damages to a sum of not less than $200

So, if you ask about if it is illegal on a forum, and then do it anyhow, and they can prove that, OUCH LOL

And then finally, there is the small (chuckle) attorney fees that you have to pay, not your attorney, THEIR attorney. This is where the term "billable hour" will haunt you for the rest of your life! We looked into fighting someone over copyright, and the "good firm" in town wanted, well lets just say I could have bought a very nice sports car for the amount. And that was just a retainer or whatever to get them signed on to the case.

So yeah, the chances of getting caught are tiny. It goes on a lot, your odds of getting caught are small. And if you do, they may be nice and first have a lawyer notify you to remove it and then be done with it. BUT, is it worth the chance of not getting off easy? With the odds and costs involved, think of it as a REVERSE LOTTERY.

-Greg

PS, a little farther down on that link I gave you, it talks about willfully infringing to make a profit entitles you to CRIMINAL prosecution!

Well have a members area, have them apply, make it a community sort of site, make webcam mode available, or just let them upload their own webcam pics whilst they are members, before they can upload put a legal binding text like "Uploading your webcam pic means this site can use it without legal liabilities ensuing us to be able to post those pics on our frontpage as a result of top poster or member blah blah blah..." then put an "I Agree" button below... Then it takes them to the upload area... See where im getting into?

VERY interesting stuff. =)

The best and safest way is to ask for permisson to use the images, 90% of the time the owner will say yes without a fee (if you aren't planning to make money off it), but be upfront if you are to make money as they are legally entitled to it.

Greg has said just about everything but think of it this way, say the webcam image is the Windows logo (Bill Gates Windows) and you want to stick it on a site about linux and charge people to see 'stuff', you think Bill Gates would mind?

I figured even if the webmaster got permission to use the image, there'll still be the "age" issue if they're of certain nature. Can't really tell age when you're collecting all these pictures online.

It's like shop owners selling smokes to underage, you can ask for ID but most of the time it's common sense, although these days it is getting really hard to tell as they are delevloping younger and younger.

Also, when it comes to people pictures you really need a model release form signed, as well as permission from the person talking the picture. The picture will always remain the property of the person who created it unless they've sold or signed away the rights to the person in the image. Say it was a young aspiring model and one day while trying to make it big came across your web site ... next thing you'd have two court cases on your hand.
Copyright is an automatic 50 years for anything written, drawn, photograthed ...

i think there maybe some copyright issues for that like what they said (above)

Interesting. How about if the Webmaster is not charging any money for the website, and put a disclaimer that the pictures all belong to the original owners and he's simply displaying what's already on the web, possibly from another forum?

There again is a grey area...

Are you linking to the images, or actually have your own copy? Google (and other search engines) techinically do this when you click on a search result for an image (example) They seem to get away with having a notice that says "Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright" (however, they link directly to the image (though their own program) rather than store a local copy.

If you have your own copy saved on your server, I say (and I am by no way a legal expert so take it for what it is worth) that then by posting a note that it is copyrighted, you are flat out admitting to the violation, since by just saying the image is Copyright 2003 Somebody, doesn't give you the right to still copy it.

And then you have the issue of on your web page, you are just displaying the image by directly linking it to someone elses server. Well there you open up a whole an of worms on web ethics. NEVER DO THIS WITHOUT PERMISSION ALSO. I don't do it anymore, but when I used to host a friend art site, and people did that (using up the resources I PAY FOR), well I would go rename the file on the server so her page would still show it, and replace the image with images that would cause the people to get them off of their site as soon as possible. (sometimes pictures, sometimes I'd make an image of text with some nasty wording). (anymore I put a nice pro-Jesus image up

Linking directly to content on another page is just giving them the ability to modify your site. Watch Out!

-Greg

GREAT information guys. The idea of starting such as website has already gone out the window, but this is still an interesting topic. How about this scenario:

A person in a chat room turns on his/her cam and goes nude. Another person in that chat room captures and saves the image and decides to put it on his website.

The webmaster is not charging for his website, so he's not making any money directly from showing those pictures. The person with the cam in the chat room is using false information when he/she signed up for the chat room. From my understanding, by providing false information during signing up the chat room or site, he/she is giving up all copyright protection.

With those points in mind, is the webmaster showing those pictures in deep Kim-Chi?

Your scenario has two topics, copyright and fraud, one does not cancel out the other.
If the sites terms and conditions stated the webmaster is a peeping tom and may save captured web cam images that may be displayed on the site or at the companies Xmas party ... and the person signing up agreed to that then they have signed away their rights (but can still be protested against in court), BUT if the webmaster used the footage or parts of it in advertising or in a negative way then it would be a good court battle but in favor of the victim.
Now the fraud, if the person signed up as Jane Doe then she has less rights to do the above as she would have to prove she is who she is, and the website may take her to court on fraud charges (depends what the site is about and whats in the TOS).

Copyright laws can be very complex but at the end of the day the copyright belongs to the person who took it, wrote it, or created it.