Copyright As We See It          Copyright. What a concept. Fact is, if you didn't draw it and you didn't buy it, its not yours. Don't use it without permission. To do so is stealing. Period.      If you get permission, it is your responsibility to acertain that the permissions are coming from someone that has the authority to extend the permissions to you.      If you get permission, it is your responsibility to stay within the permissions granted. The best way to do that is to maintain a line of communication with the artist and if you make any changes to invite them to preview what you have done and give it their approval. If they don't give their approval, graciously remove whatever does not fit with their vision.      We could go into all the reasons why one should be aware of copyrights. Artists have a right to make money on their work. They have the right to control how that money is made and in what manner they advertize.      A piece of creative work is much like a baby. Whether it be a poem, a story, a picture, a font or a webpage layout an artist forms an emotional attachment to that creation. They hurt to see it used in a manner contrary to their wishes.      Finally, the law is on their side. Your website could and should get shutdown. You could face hefty fines, but the main reason to respect copyright is because it is the right thing to do.      We have supplied some links to websites that go into copyright issues deeper than I have here. When in doubt; see paragraph one. ~STP Staff Where are the pictures?      There are some Graphics that you can use freely. The United States does not copyright any image it creates. Dot gov websites are great sources for copyright free graphics and pictures. Be careful though, The goverment also is somewhat sloppy about crediting the few graphics it uses that ARE copyrighted by others.      Do you have a digital camera? Pictures you take belong to you. You can take pictures of common household objects and create beautiful graphics from them using any graphic program.      There are some companies and artists that release their rights to some of their graphics. Be careful that you stay within any 'terms of use' that accompanies them.      You can buy image collections. These are very inexpensive. They do come with restrictions, however. Most require that the images are used only for personal use and that when incorporated into other works, they be done so in a way that the original image cannot be 'extracted' from the work. This is so they can sell those graphics to other people.      The fact is, there are plenty of images for us to use without us resorting to stealing them. We may be disappointed for a while that we can't use that pretty faery graphic we love so much, but we will get over it. won't we? ;) ~STP Staff       Here is another group you can check your images with:                     Cell templates by http://groups.msn.com/webdesign Words, Page layout & Graphics © 2003 Šog§cout Graphics