[Clipart] Librarians be aware of http://www.freeclipartnow.com

[Nathan Eady]

chovynz <chovynz at gmail.com> writes:

> For cliparts that are on our site versus on theirs, I think we can
> safely see what ones came first.

Indeed.  If there's a case where they got an image from us, then
there's no problem.  Further, if they got it from the same
(legitimate) PD source that we did, there's still no problem.

If we got it from them, and their images are only
sort-of-kind-of-but-not-really-'cause-my-fingers-were-crossed 
public domain, then in that case we could have a problem.

> I'm not concerned with how many cliparts there will be to hide, what
> matters now, is that we do the right thing for OCAL. 

I agree with this position.  We should do what is right, not go all
emotional. 

"Oh, but I *liked* those images!  And there are so many!  And they're
so pretty!"  Irrelevant.  If we're not confident that they're actually
public domain, we shouldn't be presenting them as such.

> If I find a clipart that breaks copyright in anyway, or is suspected
> to come from an "unclean source" I am obligation by my
> understanding, of what Public Domain means, to remove that "unclean"
> clipart from the Library. 

I think it's enough to hide them for now.  Having them stored is not
where we run into trouble, IMO.  Distributing them as public domain
when they may not actually be public domain is the problem.  Hiding
them stops that adequately.

> To do any less will pollute the usefulness of OCAL, and break users
> trust.

Agreed.

As a user downloading an image from OCAL, I want to be confident that
the image I'm getting is legally safe to use as clip-art.  I'm not
talking about non-intellectual-property issues that may apply in my
own situation.  I can figure that stuff out myself.  I'm talking about
hidden issues that may arise because of where the image came from.
There shouldn't be any, if it came from OCAL.  It should be fair game.
If I weren't concerned about this, I could just do a Google Image
Search and grab whatever image I happen to find, but that isn't what I
do.  I come straight to OCAL instead, so as to avoid having to worry
about stuff like who has the copyright on the image and what I can and
can't do with it.  This is what we provide to our users.

> If it is from FreeClipartNow, you might want to reconsider using it,
> because it might not be in the public domain, when you consider they
> have Donald Duck there under a Fair Use clause. 

Any site that has Donald Duck images while claiming that their images
are in the public domain is a site you definitely cannot trust to know
what "public domain" means.  Anything known to have come from that
site should be hidden forthwith.  Make it go away and pretend it never
existed.  Refs unimages.  Rectify fullwise.

-- 
Nathan Eady
Galion Public Library