©opyright
 Version française
Yes, copyright exists on the Internet !
(Sorry, this page is quite long... But if there weren't so many people who don't care about law I wouldn't have to tell EVERYTHING in detail...)
First of all it's only a matter of being sensible: the laws that protect intellectual property apply to any context, including digital stuff and networks. I won't spend time uselessly talking about this. If you want to know more, just read the laws about this, and remember that this site is protected by french law and international conventions about copyright. A good source of informations: the World Intellectual Property Organization
Anyway, I'm glad that people like my artworks, and even that they may like to decorate they personal web site with my drawings. Visitors contact me quite often to ask for permission, and I thank them for being so much polite... :)
The "deal" I suggest is this one: OK, you may display A FEW of my drawings (not too many of them, please, let to other people a good reason to visit my site!) on your own site, depending on two conditions :
- Display, close to each image, a mention of my copyright, to avoid that your visitors believe it's public domain.
- Also put on the image (or any nice comment telling where it's from) a link leading to my own homepage.
Shortly, the minimal result following these two conditions would be something like :
<A HREF="http://bellaminettes.com" TARGET="_blank">©Bruno Bellamy</A>
Small "détail" : this doesn't apply to web sites including any content that would be...
- Commercial (in such a case, please
, we'll talk business).
- Political (no comment!).
- Pornographic (I think it's less disgusting that a political content, some erotism could be nice, but there are reasonnable limits).
- Excessively repulsive (gore, destroy, satanic, etc...)
I don't allow either the use of my artworks as "tags", "signatures", "websets", "avatars", etc, in MSN groups, Yahoo groups, user groups, newsgroups or any system of the same kind. When I tell about allowing re-use for some kinds of personal web sites, it actually means I exclude any other things (it seems obvious, but many people still insist on asking me to do exceptions, so I say it one time for all : the answer is no).
Useful precision: I regard as commercial a web page that includes advertising banners.
All right, it doesn't apply in case it's banners that your ISP forces you to have on your site, don't worry! And if there's only one or two banners, it's no big deal. But if you choose to include banners in your pages in order to make profit from your website, I don't agree to let you put my images in it. If there's as much advertising as real content, I believe it's ridiculous, and it means a commercial use of the content. Do this as much as you want, but only with content that you have made, not with content that you borrow from free sites...
Moreover, when I say "a few" drawings, I actually mean "not much". Right. But so often I see websites showing real galleries of bellaminettes, by dozens! I really don't understand why I spend so much time writing a page like this one!... If people just don't read it, it's no use I loose my time taking care of this site.
Same thing about "electronic postcards", or downloadable goodies, like background screens, desktop themes, and showing orbroadcasting these images on newsgroups. I show my own creation on this site, and I even offer you some of them as presents. But I keep for myself the right to distribute them. I don't allow anybody to show many of them or broadcast them publicly without permission. Those who don't care about it are exposed to lawsuit, and I'm not kidding about this!
This is also true about images (including desktop themes) put together for free software & operating systems. I strongly support the free software movement (by doing posters, CD sleeves, like for instance the DemoLinux one), and I really give of my time and art skills. It doesn't mean that my artwork should be considered as GPL! If someone can distribute my drawings as themes for window-managers or this kind of stuff, it's me. And if I didn't do it yet, it by lack of time, because I have to give priority to my job. And the time I spend trying to resolve the troubles with those who didn't respect the conditions mentionned above, it's time I can't use to update the site. If you want more bellaminettes on this site, you have to respect them, to begin with...
I remind you, most of all, that the rights I leave are really a GIFT! In a regular situation, if one would just stick to the law, this would even not be possible.
Why do I insist that much about all this?...
Well... I think the few conditions I ask are pretty cool. I'm not asking that much...
But in spite of that, from time to time, I find web sites where my drawings are shown without any mention that I'm the author, and without any link to my site. Not to mention those who even erase my signature, or put together my artworks with illegal or insane stuff... :(
I feel kind of ridiculous to explain all this, but the infrigements I see so often are so stupid... Do I really have to detail everything that's not to be done?! This page is already much too long, this would become really a pain in the ass...
Please be nice, don't discourage me from updating my site and add content in it...
So, as I gues that if you reproduce my drawings it's because you really like them -and this is a pleasant thought- I agree to be nice...
Then please, don't make me think I'm TOO MUCH nice... Be respectful, that's worth it. ;)
If, on the contrary, you believe you can use my creations without having to care about law, you'd better know that several people already had to regret it. If I have to involve in a lawsuit, I won't hesitate, and it could be hard stuff...
Several visitors have suggested that I could use tricky stuff (like JavaScript) to prevent people from saving the images, to completely resolve the problem of their possible misuse. But I absolutely don't want to do such a thing.
I want to say again, that this site is made for you, readers, visitors, because it's for you that I draw, and I want to welcome you here in a nice and friendly way. I had to "harden" a little bit the content of this copyright page because of some abuses, but I had to do this just because I want to protect and keep what this site always was meant to be, and what gives it a reason to be, and most of all in a nice way.
You have the right, you who like and respect these images, to get them for yourself, and use them as background screens, watch them whenever you want, and enjoy them as you like, because these images where made for you. Your supporting and grateful e-mails make me think every day that I made the right choice. :)
Technical tricks aiming to automatically protect the images wouldn't be a limitation to dishonnest hackers (there's always a trickier way...), but would be a trouble to those who come on this site with good intentions. And I don't want this at all.
This site will remain free and creative, because that's what it's meant to be, and it's vocation. Those who like it and respect it will always be welcome.
Those who want to abuse of it will have to face real problems, because I don't appreciate at all when someone regard generosity as weakness.
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