Public digital photo galleries with full-size pictures?

[shandrio]

Hi all,

I hope I posted this question in the correct forum!
I wish to print a BIG poster from a nice landscape like this to hang in my living room wall.
I'm looking for digital photo galleries where photographers (professionals or amateurs) share their work with the world just for the fun of it, as a hobby or to show their skills but not for the money. I'm looking for full size pictures (like >= 6 MPx) in their original (or post processed but not down-sized) format so that I can make a BIG print of them. Does such a site exist?

Thanks in advance!

Yours,
Shandrio

 

[Big Mike]

You are not allowed to make prints from photos you find on the internet, unless the photographer gives you permission.

 

[480sparky]

You are not allowed to make prints from photos you find on the internet, unless the photographer gives you permission.

Not sure, but the OP is in Argentina.... copyright laws may be different there.

 

[KmH]

That is because of copyright. A photographer's photos are usually exclusively the photographer's intellectual property.

Argentina, along with 140+ other countries are signators of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Save some relatively minor variances by country, copyright is essentially global.

There are technical limits to putting full size images online.

 

[shandrio]

You are not allowed to make prints from photos you find on the internet, unless the photographer gives you permission.

Alright, that's exactly what I'm looking for. A site (if such site exists) in which photographers share their work and give everybody such permission. We programmers call that FOSS (free open source sofware). We produce sofware, which is normaly bound to copyright, but offer it for free to the public. Don't (any) photographers do the same?

 

[epp_b]

This is both a technical and legal matter...

It's a technical matter because whether you can physically make a big print of a photo depends on the digital resolution of the photo you have available to you. It's a legal matter because it depends on how the photographer has chosen to license the photo (by default, photos are copyrighted automatically unless the copyright owner deliberately releases the photo into the public domain or uses an alternative and more reasonable licensing system like creative commons ... see below).

That said, if someone is naive enough to make available a full-resolution copy of a photo online without and simply hope that that everyone is going to obey the overreaching, short-sighted and arbitrary rules of copyright, do you really think they're ever going to find out if you make a big print to hang your livngroom? Doubtfully. Are they going to find out if you try to use it in a big advertising campaign? Much more likely, yes.

Alright, that's exactly what I'm looking for. A site (if such site exists) in which photographers share their work and give everybody such permission. We programmers call that FOSS (free open source sofware). We produce sofware, which is normaly bound to copyright, buy offer it for free to the public. Don't (any) photographers do the same?

Yes, it's called Creative Commons. It's a form of alternative licensing some photographers use (look on Flickr, for example, and search for CC-licensed work) that is much clearer and and more reasonable than copyright in general.

 

[shandrio]

Yes, it's called Creative Commons. It's a form of alternative licensing some photographers use (look on Flickr, for example, and search for CC-licensed work) that is much clearer and and more reasonable than copyright in general.

That is EXACTLY what I was looking for!! Whoever thought of CC is a genius. I've seen it a lot in Wikipedia, but never thought how it could relate to copyright photographs. I'll give it a look and see if I can find any CC photographs in full-size.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Peano]

You are not allowed to make prints from photos you find on the internet, unless the photographer gives you permission.

I"m not going to debate this. To the OP: the statement above is not correct. It overstates the restrictions that copyright places on the ways others may use the image.

To those who say that copyright law prohibits an individual from printing an image from the Internet: Can you cite either a statute or a case to support your assertion?

 

[KmH]

Here you go Peano - http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ38a.pdf

and from the first paragraph of - http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act generally gives the owner of copyright the exclusive right to do and to authorize others to do the following:• reproduce the work in copies or phonorecords