Is my copyrighted artwork protected if I upload it to a post?

Question

Note this is not a question about using copyrighted material I do not own. It's about materials I own and have all rights to.

A question on GraphicDesign.SE has spurred some comments regarding image licensing.

See the comments HERE

I posted a copyrighted image which I own. I am the sole copyright holder. All image rights are mine.

A user commented that as soon as I upload the image it is attributed a Creative Commons license and anyone can use the image provided they credit the author.

I disagree.

It is my understanding that uploading an image grants SE the right to use the image. It does not however grant everyone the rights to use an image, with or without attribution. Others can, in context, use the contents of my SE post under Creative Commons licensing with attribution. However others can't merely grab an image, or a cherry-picked piece of my answer/post, and reuse it for any purpose they desire. In this case, a rudimentary logo mockup.

I've reviewed the copyright policies, but they are more directed and the uploading of unauthorized material, not about unintentional distribution of copyrighted materials.

Now, I'm not an idiot. I know if I never want an image stolen I should never post it on the internet, anywhere. I posted the image. I'm aware it will most likely be "lifted" at some point. But, that does not mean I wish to relinquish all rights to the image, or to immediately attribute a Creative Common license to my image in itself.

Is there definitive information on SE's position regarding content which is copyrighted and legally uploaded? What license, if any, is attributed to uploaded content beyond the license granted to SE?

Answer 1

Images you upload to the SE imgur instance using the integrated image upload feature are licensed under a Creative Commons license, specifically cc by-sa 3.0. This is explicitly mentioned in the upload dialog. The human-readable version of the license is the following:

You are free to:

• Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
• Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially.

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

• Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

• ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

• No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

This licence isn't restricted to SE in any way, anyone can use the images if they follow the rules of the license.

This doesn't affect your own copyright of the image, you still have all the rights to it you originally had. But now the image is additionally available under the CC license for anyone that wants to use it.

I'm not a lawyer, but based on all the previous discussions of Creative Commons here I'm pretty confident in this interpretation.

^{I've no idea how this works if you embed an image, but use a different image hoster. Not relevant in this specific case, but maybe in others.}

Answer 2

The content you contribute gets licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Not just text, any kind of content. Text doesn’t get treated differently from images.

It doesn’t matter if SE’s upload tool gets used. It doesn’t matter where the image is hosted. The only thing that matters is that you embed/show the image (so it becomes part of the work, i.e., the question, answer, or tag wiki).

If you don’t want this, you can link (instead of embed) the image. That way, the link itself (i.e., the anchor text) becomes part of the work, but not the linked image.

If you don’t have the copyright

The license only applies to content which you are allowed to apply a license to (i.e., you have the copyright).

If you want to embed an image for which you don’t have the copyright, you should mark it, so it becomes clear (for other users) that it’s not (necessarily) licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. The most simple and clear way is to quote the image and attribute it accordingly.

Note that you can’t just embed any image you want. You need the permission, either by law (e.g., quoting laws, fair use, public domain, etc.), or by license (e.g., if the image author licensed it under CC BY-SA 3.0 or another compatible license).

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I think (but am not sure) that you could quote your own image (if allowed by law in that context), and thereby bypass licensing it. I asked about it on Open Source SE (where question like your’s would also be on-topic, by the way): Quoting your own content (in your own work, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0) to avoid licensing it

Answer 3

If you upload an image using Stack Exchange's Imgur service, then I think it's pretty clear that you are doing so under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. (Note that their "attribution required" thing is not legally valid.)

If you hotlink directly to an image you have hosted elsewhere, then the image does not necessarily automatically get CC BY-SA licensed. Instead it could be treated as third party content. Under fair use you may be able to incorporate copyrighted works in a CC licensed work without forcing that work itself to be CC licensed.

For example, imagine a movie review blog which includes a screencap under fair use. If the blog is CC BY-SA licensed, you could take the blog and transform it, perhaps keeping the same structure but turning a favourable review into an unfavourable review. You could include the screencap if you too could use it under fair use. But you couldn't take that screencap and make a derivative work of it as that goes beyond fair use, and the CC BY-SA license doesn't apply to it.

The Creative Commons site has a page about marking third party content.

Using third party content in your work that is not offered under the same license terms as the rest of your work may require additional marking. If you include works offered under other Creative Commons licenses, additional marking may be required for attribution. If you include third party content in your work that may not be available for reuse under the same terms as the rest of the work, you should warn users and mark it with any additional information that may be helpful. CC offers additional explanation and tips on giving thorough notices and marking for works.

So in short, you could include your copyrighted artwork in a SE post if you hotlink it and explicitly note that the CC BY-SA license does not apply to it.

Edit: however as animuson notes below, this would still be unwise as someone else may take your hotlinked image and reupload it using the Imgur service later (so as to prevent linkrot). If you do explicitly note that the CC BY-SA license doesn't apply to it they're unlikely to do so, but to be absolutely safest you'd be best off to not embed the image at all, and to only link to it.

Answer 4

When you upload the image via the inbuilt "image upload" it says clearly:

User contributions licensed under cc by-sa 3.0 with attribution required

By uploading the image you agree to grant that license. If you do not wish to grant that license, do not upload the image.

Regarding your edit/update:

Someone else's CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 image is fine to use on SE sites (provided you follow its terms and provide attribution). However, if you want to get all technical, you are not permitted to upload it via the "image upload" functionality as you would claim to grant the CC BY-SA 3.0 license - something you are not entitled to, if you are not the image's copyright holder.

Answer 5

It's still your copyrighted image, but you've given everyone (through SE) the right to reuse it as per the cc-by-sa licence.

So people can reuse it but they must attach the proper credit. If you attach the original credit when you post the image in the first place, then you've got it covered. If you don't indicate the true origin of the image then the attribution will just be to the original post.

Answer 6

CC-by-SA 3.0 says:

You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

ShareAlike — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original.

No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

So anyone can use the content you post here as long as they provide that attribution.