Here at the Paint Shop Pro Users Group we have run into various issues dealing with copyright infringement. We feel this is a very important subject and one that we all need to be more aware of. Think about how you would feel if one day while you were browsing the web you came upon a site that had your graphics displayed, at first you are thrilled that someone likes them enough to use them, and then you start looking for your credit link.....still looking.......hmm it's got to be here somewhere........well, now you have looked at all their pages and low a behold there is no credit link to your site to be found anywhere, and what's worse maybe they even slapped their own little copyright on YOUR work! Now how do you feel? Used, hurt, angry, confused as to WHY anyone would do such a thing? Now lets stop for a moment and think about all these neat fonts we use in our graphics and the super cool plugins we LOVE. Think about the people who created those. Imagine how much WORK it took to make them! When you post plugins or fonts or any other files for download that you did not create 100% by yourself and you do not include the accompanying credit files or a credit link to the author, you are participating in copyright infringement! My friend, you are BREAKING THE LAW!!
We have put together this page in the hopes it will help to educate us all better on the issue of copyrights. It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to make SURE the images, files and anything else you get from the web or a friend is either not copyrighted OR has the original copyright included with it. Place the credits on your pages, check to make sure those images are copyright free or permission has been granted to use them.
Think BEFORE you Link! Another important note here is when you want to use a graphic you MUST download it to your hard drive and then upload it to your own server, DO NOT LINK to graphics!!! This not only slows down your pages load time it is STEALING BANDWIDTH! Have you noticed how much slower the web seems today? Think about all those banner ads, those graphics are not on that persons server, it is linked from the banner ads location. Now add all the graphics that individuals link to for whatever reason instead of downloading them to their own hard drive.....think of the MILLIONS of users on the web, think of all the new home pages popping up daily! The figures are astounding! It is no wonder the web has become so congested. You are getting the 404 error more and more often. Yes that's right you can get a 404 error (page not found) just because the network traffic is too heavy. So please respect this wonderful resource...the web, and protect our rights and think before you link!
Below you will find some links to help you learn more about copyrights,
linking and general netiquette. Please visit at least ONE and broaden
your knowledge and make the web a better place for all!
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