Using web images in a short?

mjjason

mjjason

Well-known member
Posted this in the Business section but did not got any feedback so I thought I try my luck here.

In a short I am working on I plan to use an image of a web smiley that I found on the web. It is similar to hundreds of other available on the web and you can download and save it for free.

Are there any legal issues with using a web smiley found on the net? Do I have to get rights for it?

Also, if I want to use AOL IM sound clips would I need rights for that?

Any help would be appreciated.
 
You can just make your own smiley in photoshop. That would alleviate that whole legal issue situation. As for sound effects, a big company like AOL probably wouldn't care if you used their sound effects in your not-for-profit short, but again, if you want to be on the safe side, just get a few royalty free sound effects (or some completely free ones from the Freesound Project, http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/ ) and use them.
 
Yes, I was planning on making my own smiley of some consideration. Probably the easiest and safest route.

However, the AOL sound is somewhat key to the short. Though I may need to mask or copy it in some way without it being exact.

Thanks for the info Karl151k and for the link
 
if it's absolutely necessary that it remind people of AOL you can just use someone else's voice to record it and have them say something similar but not exact - you can get away w/ parody in that sense
 
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