I just had a strange request from someone, wanting to know if I had hi-res versions of some images that I posted in a thread/on the database. This person seemingly wants/intends to use the images in a book which will be published next year. (Fwiw they did not ask permission to do so.)

I have not watermarked any of my images, but to be honest I don't particularly want them published in a book. They are here for everyone to enjoy (and maybe learn from), for free, and that is good enough for me.

Does garden.org hold a copyright for these images? What exactly is the legal status of images posted on this site (whether in the database or on threads)?

I think you give gargen.org the right to use the images, but you own them.

I'm not sure if there is a way to keep someone from taking your photos and using them unless you have a large watermark right across the middle!

A few years ago a company in France (Horticolor) contacted me via tree-mail saying that they'd seen some of my database photos and asked if they could use a few of them for a book that they were publishing. She said that they would send me a complimentary copy of the book as a thank you which sounded like a great idea so I e-mailed her five or six photos that they'd requested.

A lot of time passed before I got an email in June 2018 saying that the book was finally finished and at the publishers and she asked me to send her my address, saying she would mail me a copy of the book. A couple of months went by and I emailed her asking when they thought I would receive the book and in August 2018, she answered saying:

"I well received your email with your postal address. Nevertheless, I forwarded your email to Patrick ____ who is now in charge of the job. I left my job at Horticolor but before leaving I gave him a list of people to whom to send the book and you were the 1st on the list! The book has been printed now so it should not be long before he sends it to you."

I never received the book and never heard anything more. LOL, since I don't speak french I wouldn't have been able to read much anyway but it would have been nice to have a copy. I recall another member here sent pictures for the same book and never received a copy of the book either.

Polymerous said:Does garden.org hold a copyright for these images? What exactly is the legal status of images posted on this site (whether in the database or on threads)?

Per the Terms of Service:

TOS said:Copyright, ownership and usage grants for member contributed content:

By submitting Content for inclusion on the Website, you grant the Administration a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content on any media and on any website, for any purpose. For educational and/or promotional purposes, we may republish your submitted content for publication on websites not owned by the Administration. If you request to delete Content, the Administration will use reasonable efforts to remove it, but you acknowledge that caching or references to the Content may not be made immediately unavailable.

You retain the copyright of any images you upload, although when adding them to the plant database you have the option to make them available under a Creative Commons licence, the GNU Free Documentation Licence, or declare them to be public domain. If you have uploaded them as "All Rights Reserved", then with the exception of the usage rights granted to the NGA as per the terms of service, you retain the rights. No one else can legally just take your images off the site unless you have specifically set the licence to Creative Commons, the GNU Free Documentation Licence or public domain.

What she appears to be interested in are a couple of my Plant Combination images. I can't find anything on those images (unlike, say, on individual plant images I have submitted) that says "all rights reserved".

Because you cannot explicitly set the licence on the plant combinations to a more permissive licence (e.g. Creative Commons, public domain, etc.), they should be "All Rights Reserved" by default.

Polymerous said: What she appears to be interested in are a couple of my Plant Combination images. I can't find anything on those images (unlike, say, on individual plant images I have submitted) that says "all rights reserved".

You do not have to say you have a copyright to your creative work, that is automatic. Your photos don't *need* to be labeled as "copyrighted" or as "all rights reserved". If you do not explicitly grant permission to someone, they have zero legal right to use your work. If someone uses your work without permission, you can sue for copyright infringement.

If you want, you can choose to have your work in the public domain (you give away your rights to determine how your work is used), or you can use a Creative Commons license to allow others to use your work given certain conditions.

It's pretty bold to ask you for hi-res images without asking permission. The person might be completely ignorant about copyright law, but I suspect she just assumes that you are, or that you won't bother to contest her infringement. Whatever the case, it's probably a good idea to tell her that her use of your work without permission is illegal.

Thank you, all.

Real life issues are more pressing at the moment, but I guess I'll deal with this shortly. Good to know that I retain the copyright.