Forum Moderators: not2easy
I know when we review books we are allowed to use the cover image (according to the publishers who supply review copies, anyway) but have to get permission to use any other illustrations from the book.
But a movie doesn't have a "cover" exactly (until it comes out on dvd) except maybe it's poster image (s).
I know you (most, anyway :) aren't lawyers, but maybe someone has looked into this issue before, and knows what is allowed?
Thanks.
Yes, we are reviewing the movies (although unofficially at this stage- we did do it on an official basis on a previous site, and hope to do it again with this site, once we are getting enough visitors to impress the reps :).
By scenes, I just meant a still from a scene from the movie, rather than the general poster shot(s), not actually showing a clip of a scene.
Generally we'd just want one or two pics to illustrate what we are writing. We just want to be very careful not to do anything illegal, as this site is totally ours and we'll be personally responsible for whatever we do!
...to illustrate what we are writing
IMHO, this is the important part. The images used shouldn't be just for decoration, but need to illustrate your commentary, in the same way that a book review might give a short quote from the book to give an example of what the reviewer is saying. If you're discussing whether or not the costumes are historically accurate, for example, a pic of one of the costumes you're talking about would be a reasonable addition to your commentary. You can even refer to the picture in the review ("As you can see in the picture above, the costume designers evidently thought people in Medieval Italy dressed like space aliens."). So, actually, the movie poster is probably not going to be your best choice, as well as being more of a copyright question because it's the entire "creative work." One still from a scene in a two-hour-long movie is a small percentage of the work.
I do this on my own site, and am very careful about it for the same reason you are. One guideline I use is whether I can naturally refer to the image in the course of the review.
[edited by: Beagle at 1:23 am (utc) on Feb. 18, 2007]
Your reply gives me something to go on, so that I can feel that whatever image I am using is being used in good faith to illustrate a point, and therefore hopefully a legitimate use.
