Question on photo policy

I did scan the FAQs and didn't spot this, though I know it must be somewhere. I am supposing it is policy to only post photos that are your own or with owners permission, but that you can link to plant photos off site to illustrate particular cultivars, etc. LMK, if I'm totally offbase.

Thanks for running a kind, civil, and stunningly useful site.

K.

Hi, Kyra

Thanks for the kind words ;o)

You're absolutely correct. Members can post their own photos or illustrations - they retain the copyrights, but give us a non-exclusive use of the images they post here.

With permission from the photographer/copyright holder, they can also post other's photos withiin PlantFiles - we give the option of temporarily suspending the waterrmark for that very purpose.

If you find a photo on another site that you'd like to use for identification comparison, or other purposes, you can link to it from here, thus ensuring the site and the photo are given proper credit and there's no misunderstanding about who owns the photo.

I have found some sites that state that their photos may be used for noncommercial purposes with appropriate photo credit supplied with the photos and without requesting permission to do so. One site in particular has many photos of insects which would be valuable additions to the BugFiles. Is Dave's Garden still considered "noncommercial"?

htop,
As it's davesgarden.com, and the site generates income via memberships, etc., I think the Files would fall under commercial use... but I am not an expert in such matters. :)

I'm not sure if it would count as commercial use because the pics are being posted as references, not to use for selling things which is usually what I would think of when I hear commercial use--but technically since DG does generate you could be right. When in doubt, the best policy is always to ask! That way there's no way you can accidentally get in trouble. Many places I'm sure would be more than happy to have their pics posted here (with appropriate credit of course), but there may be a few that wouldn't so it's probably better to ask first.

Thank you both for your thoughtful responses.