Skim bypass fee?

[BigJohn]

Originally posted by Tommy
I think its doable

the tgp is providing a service by putting the list of gallery links together. it isnt completly unreasonable to ask for a small fee

no offence but as far as copyrighted gallerys
I doubt anyone has ever filed a copyright for a gallery
and the tgp isnt stealing your gallery

you put your gallery on the web open to the public. really anyone can link to it

I think webmasters would jump thru hoops for that credit card carrying traffic

if I wrote a tourist book about the best beaches on long island
and all the beaches in the book were free and open to the public
it doesnt mean i cant charge for the book

If the book you wrote about public beaches included pictures that are copyrighted, then no... you can't sell it. But that's niether here nor there, your example isn't the same... A closer example would be shareware... you can use it and give it away, but you can't sell it.

If you start allowing TGP's to charge surfers in order to view a paysite's copyrighted pictures just because they're available for free, where does the line get drawn? Can someone then use my "free" images to start a paysite without using the gallery? The images have my URL, so would that be the same? What about images found on usenet, those are free too aren't they?

How about if someone uses the graphics from your TGP and builds their own? The images were shown in public, for free.... is that okay? Of course it isn't.

Yes, as a paysite owner, I would LOVE to have surfers come to my site who have credit cards and are known to have purchased. At the same time, I want to be able to control MY copyrighted materials.

There was a lot of controversy about TGP's skimming thumbnails (using copyrighted images for purposes other than intended), so selling my images without my permissions is okay, but skimming my thumbnail is not?