Feather’s Guide to Roleplay Image Copyright

What this guide will cover:
-- Copyright Rules and Lioden
-- Can I use this image according to the copyright?
-- Searching using copyright filters

Copyright Rules and Lioden

Here on Lioden, when we allow users to use images that they find on the internet for characters in their roleplays, we always do checks on them. Every time a new character sheet is created or edited, the moderators receive an alert and we have to make sure that the images you’re using aren’t breaking our Terms of Service. We have to find the source that you have linked to (if at all), and make sure that it follows the rules.

Can I use this image according to the copyright?

Let’s say you’re doing a wolf roleplay, and you want a nice picture of a white wolf that you can use for your character, Frost the Betrayer. You hop onto a search and think that this image on Flickr is perfect!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/justinlophotography/8707508924

Great, you have the original source, but actually, you are not allowed to use this image. But why?
You can see, in clear view of the image and displayed on the website beside it, the following text and symbol:


[Caption: Image shows all rights reserved]

What does this mean?
From Yahoo (who own flickr)’s website:

"You, the copyright holder, reserve all rights provided by copyright law, such as the right to make copies, distribute your work, perform your work, license, or otherwise exploit your work; no rights are waived under this license.”

What this means is that even though you have the original source, the copyright on this image prevents you, legally, from distributing and sharing that image yourself on Lioden’s RP boards.

Great, now what?

Well, I’ve also found this image which is pretty cool:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/denisdervisevic/14427217492

You’ll notice that the copyright on THIS image actually says “Some rights reserved”. If you click on that text, you are taken to the specific license that the photographer has chosen for their image. For this one, it is:


[Caption: Image showing Attribution Copyright License that allows you to share the image]

Now THIS image, you ARE allowed to use, because as long as you link back and credit the original source (attribution), you’re not breaking any copyright rules! Awesome. I can use the link to the image on my RP post as the source. Frost the Betrayer looks great, and the moderators can now give your character sheet a big thumbs-up! Congrats!

This guide uses Flickr as an example, but you need to be checking for copyright information on every image that you use because if it turns out that it’s obviously copyrighted against use, distribution or sharing, we will be asking you to remove the image and find one with an appropriate source.

But how on earth am I supposed to go through all those images without knowing the copyright upfront?
There’s a solution for that too!

Searching by Copyright License

Most search engines have this tool, but I’ll use Google for this example. When searching for an image, you can hit Settings and then Advanced Search. Scroll down through the options until you see “Usage Rights” and select the following on the dropdown:


[Caption: Image showing Google options with Usage Rights dropdown to select free to use or share]

Now, when you search, you will only be given images that you can use according to their copyright rules. Amazing!

If you’d like an even broader search, you can use this website:

Creative Commons Search

This one does the same thing as the Google example, except searches any websites that you choose specifically, like Flickr.

That’s all for this guide! Have fun roleplaying! c: