Copyright issues

[Edman22]

How do you figure out what content to avoid in order not to get some copyright lawyer on your ass about content on your site? For example I'm curious about the following situations:

1) What if I make a site....lets say about star wars or something. Can I use any of the logos, or the music from the sound tracks on the site? Or, is this considered clear copyright violations?

2) As a related question, how do you find music or other media that ISN'T copyrighted? Is there some way to seek out songs or music that one can use freely?

Or am I just being paranoid and should just make whatever site I want, and if a lawyer comes knocking I just take it down?

 

[jryan21]

Personally, I'd stay away from the franchise type stuff that deals with sports teams or movies. If you wanted to do things legit, most will sell you a license allowing you to resell or use logos, etc., but most of those licenses are not unconditional, meaning, they usually grant license for a very specific item for a very specific purpose. And they are usually not cheap. That's why sports team items like caps, jerseys, etc. are so expensive.

Creative commons is a good place to check into royalty-free stuff. If something has a creative commons license, it will appear in their copyright statement. you can check it and see exactly what you can use and how you can use it. Also, images(+ everything else?) on wikipedia I believe are public domain.

 

[Edman22]

Personally, I'd stay away from the franchise type stuff that deals with sports teams or movies. If you wanted to do things legit, most will sell you a license allowing you to resell or use logos, etc., but most of those licenses are not unconditional, meaning, they usually grant license for a very specific item for a very specific purpose. And they are usually not cheap. That's why sports team items like caps, jerseys, etc. are so expensive.

Creative commons is a good place to check into royalty-free stuff. If something has a creative commons license, it will appear in their copyright statement. you can check it and see exactly what you can use and how you can use it. Also, images(+ everything else?) on wikipedia I believe are public domain.

I'm guessing that whether or not they come after you also depends on if your site gets big and starts making money.