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Copyright issue with cars pictures

by davidrock011
4 replies
I wanted to ask if there are any copyright problems about public cars photos? I want to take pictures of few cars on the street and publish the pictures on my (own) web site. I will remove the plate number.
I will explicitly own the pictures but the cars are not my (just random from the street).
I am planning to monetize the web site with adsense/infolinks.

Is this a copyrights violation?

Tnx
#cars #copyright #issue #pictures
  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    Unless it has changed, you can't take a photo for print of a Ford car. Obviously, many people get away with that when they put a photo in a classified ad to sell a Ford.

    Ford: Car owners are pirates if they distribute pictures of their own cars – Boing Boing
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by sbucciarel View Post

      Unless it has changed, you can't take a photo for print of a Ford car. Obviously, many people get away with that when they put a photo in a classified ad to sell a Ford.
      Hopefully Kindsvater will jump into this thread.

      Products can be copyrighted in their design. Even buildings can be protected. So, you can't take pictures of buildings without permission either, except perhaps Federal government buildings, unless the copyright of the design of those buildings belongs to a third-party contractor that was not a government employee. Or something like that.

      But, I think there is a difference between the calendar and a classified ad. The calendar would be making money off the copyrighted image, whereas a classified ad is simply using the photo as identification of the item being sold.

      But, yeah, just one more thing to be aware of, isn't it?
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      • Profile picture of the author davidrock011
        Hi, I heard about Ford issue, but they talked about calendar there.

        I am just talking about random cards (except Ford brand) on the street. I dont plan to use the picture on the calendar or classified ad. Just pictures in addition to some blog posts.

        If there is a copyright on design, they it's really hard to copyright car's pictures even if I own the picture. Cars do have a design.
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  • Profile picture of the author gushy0202
    Is using pictures kind of advertising the car only right, in that case it helps the car get some sort of free advertising.. But you should not use them commercially. Informative purpose i think should be fine.
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