To all my lovely blog followers,
It is with a pretty broken heart that I have to announce that I will no longer be able to post character photos directly on the blog or on the Facebook page. The blog isn’t in any kind of trouble or anything official, but this is a precautionary measure.
I guess it was easier for it to not think about this when I was a smaller, unknown little blog but now that its popularity and regular visitors has grown considerably, I just can’t take the risk of posting them.
The plain truth of it is that, unless you own the rights to an image, it is subject to copyright laws which legally do not allow ANYONE to post it for ANY reason without the express permission of its owner. And yes, that means that sites like Pinterest, many Facebook pages etc that have gorgeous yummy pics for us to drool over are, in fact, technically, illegal.
It sucks. There is no way around it. But the fact is that in the last while, ever since the explosion of image sharing, there have been law firms that have opened up with the express purpose of shaking down the little people for minor photo violations. Its not like a ginormous multi-billion dollar law-suit, but its $4,000 here, $10,000 there… and it adds up for them and is pretty devasting for the blogger.
So I kinda came to the conclusion that honestly, I can’t take that risk. It doesn’t matter that I wasn’t making any money off them (which I wasn’t), it wouldn’t matter if I put a disclaimer, it wouldn’t matter if I gave full image credit or even linked back to the original source, there is literally NOTHING I could do that would make it legal short of getting the express permission of each photo’s copywrite owner. And the truth is ANYONE who posts an image that they do not own ANYWHERE is taking a big risk. If you are a blogger/author/reader who has some such pictures up, I’d strongly recommend reading some of the laws, cuz they are S.C.A.R.Y.
Seriously, its breaking my heart to do this. I can’t tell you guys how much I truely, with all my heart, LOVE casting the books I read at the end of my review. It completes my review to me. But, hosting those images on my blog is not legal and if I want to keep my blog running, I have to make some hard choices.
So… where does that leave us? The blog and all its reviews/quotes etc will keep running exactly like it always has – nothing about that will change. I will still be reading and reviewing 3-5 new books per week and still be hunting down all the swooniest stories to share with you, I will still be hosting giveaways every few weeks, I will be maintaining all my ‘Top 10 lists’ etc and basically everything else that you see normally on the blog will continue as usual.
The only thing that unfortunately will have to change, is that there won’t be character visuals directly in my review 🙁 … however, what I WILL be able to do instead, is to post links at the bottom of the reviews where the character images used to be to the images that I find that best look like the characters that you can click and go to if you would like a visual, but the image just won’t be hosted directly on my site.
Bear with me with that feature. I have a lot of work to do to make that feature available back through all my past reviews on top of keeping up with my regular to-read lists.
I’m also going to start expanding certain areas of the blog to make, for example, a bad boy zone, a YA zone, erotica zone, PNR zone, contemporary romance zone etc, and also an ‘if-you-loved-this, you-will-love-that’ area… and hopefully be able to tack on other fun stuff along the way as the site grows.
I’m really, really sorry to those of you who loved this aspect of the Facebook page and blog. I loved it too. No, I LOVED it. I feel like I just spent all day building a gorgeous, elaborate sandcastle just to have it smushed down by a giant wave. But thats the reality of the law, and those are the risks that come with a site that gets progressively more traffic.
I really hope that you guys will stick around. I love chatting books with each of you both on comments here on the blog, on the Facebook page, and on Twitter, I love hearing your inputs, getting/giving recommendations, and just sharing in the joy of reading 😀
Thank you all for your support, for your participation, and for just coming around and reading the blog. I see the number of people that check in every month and it just makes me so, so happy to see how many of you love it here.
Happy reading everyone!!
~Aestas
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
AJ says
That’s very sad news, but completely understandable. Your blog is still awesome, and I look forward to seeing all of the new developments!
Aestas says
Thank you so so much for your support and understanding <3
It means so much to me! I's pretty heartbroken over the picture loss but I'm excited to add the new features over the next few weeks. Should be fun!
Audgy says
Though I admit your reviews complete with swoon worthy pics at the end was what drew me to you blog, I quickly learned you are my book twin. Pictures or not, I will still be stalking your blog daily to plan my next read. 🙂
ralphsmum says
Hi, I’m fairly new to your book blog, but it is truly one of the best I’ve ever been to. Your reviews and book choices are fantastic!. I completely agree with your decision in regards to the character photos. It’s sad, but no one wants a lawsuit on their hands!. I have a question though – what about the book cover images? Are they copyrighted as well? Just wondering 🙂
Aestas says
@Audgy: I’m so happy that you will still be stalking the blog! 😀 I have so many amazing books on my to-read list and I absolutely can’t wait to share them with all of you.
@Ralphsmum: Thank you so much for your kind words! … about the book covers, they can be used so long as the review is about that book. Same thing with quotes – those are allowed in as much as they serve to make a point about the book. But, say, I couldn’t use, for example, the cover of one book to promote another. But using book covers to directly promote that particular book is allowed…. It was definitely sad, and it was SO hard so go through and click ‘delete’ over and over and over again, but it was the right thing to do and I’m glad I did it.
I’m so excited though for the new features I’m going to add though… I think you guys will love them!! 😀
Farah C. says
I understand, but even without the links I would still keep coming back. Looking forward to the other changes.
Aestas says
I’m so glad to hear that!! I can’t wait to put the changes up 😀
It’s so touching how supporting and understanding you all are <3
Sara Jayne says
I’m hearing this a lot now, I think it’s becoming a big problem for bloggers. I’ve also decided to not have any images on my blog except for cover images, which I copy from Goodreads. Hopefully that’s still ok? I love your plans to make different sections on your blog! Can’t wait to see what you come up with 🙂
dee says
Actually, I never read your reviews for the pics but I’m sorry for those who liked them.
Aestas says
@SaraJayne: Yeah, it’s becoming a bigger and bigger issue recently. And, yes, the cover images are fine to use so long as you use them in association with something about the book. You can look it up on google if you want. It’s called “fair use” … Basically you have to be able to argue that what you are using the cover shot for is “fair”. And a review of the book certainly is…. Ps, I love the URL of your blog lol :p
@Dee: Makes me so happy to hear that. Thank you 🙂
Natasha is a Book Junkie says
Sad news, Aestas, but very smart decision!!! I read a similar post on another blog some time ago and decided very early on in my blogging adventures not to use images that I do not own. What about book cover images in our reviews? Are we OK using those? ~ N
Aestas says
Natasha.. yeah, I think I may have read that article too… or at least a similar one – it was what had me researching the laws to begin with. But yes, book covers are fine to use so long as you use the book cover in association with your review… like you don’t use a book cover to promote your blog, you use the book cover to promote the review which is essentially promoting the book itself. It basically is acceptable under the “fair use” terms which you can google if you are curious. Hope that helps 🙂
Natasha is a Book Junkie says
You’ve just inspired me to write a disclaimer! 🙂
Samantha says
While I think it’s crap, that they can do that while you are giving credit where credit is deserved and putting up disclaimers that you are not in fact stealing these pictures but merely borrowing them. I understand what you need to do to. I can remember the days where if it was posted on the web and was made public access it was fair game. Now everything is due to money, money, money! Sad day really! I mean come on really I think these people would be proud and honored to have bloggers like us portray their photos and spread it around getting them more street cred. ya know.
I’m glad though I decided on using any other photo’s, other than book covers on mine unless I own or paid for the pics. And I have actually paid for some, like the photos I used for my background and title banner on mine I had paid for a subscriptions for like 20 credits to use those pics so I technically own them. So I feel ya there. But it’s still a sad day when they have to come down on us little people for stupid things like this.
Aestas says
@Natasha: You can do that (in fact, you can copy the one I had up from before: ____ claims no credit for any images linked to by this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.) but from what I’ve read, disclaimers are worthless. If they want to come after you for posting an image, there isn’t much you can do.
@Samantha: Yeah, I hear you. It sucks to be bound by laws like that but there isn’t much you can do about it… the scary thing is how wide spread some of it is… like Pinterest for example. If they wanted to, any of the people on Pinterest could go after someone for having loaded their image without their permission… scary!! But I do wish that, if you gave full credit, you could use the image (in cases where you were making zero profit off of it of course) 🙁
Natasha is a Book Junkie says
I’ve just written a disclaimer and used your wording as well in there – THANK YOU!! But I also couldn’t help myself and made it a bit more ranty Natasha-style. 🙂
http://natashaisabookjunkie.com/disclaimer/
Aestas says
LMAO!!! hahahahahaaa brilliant!
Natasha is a Book Junkie says
We aim to please! 🙂
Samantha says
I agree, I think that as long as you are saying “HEY I DON’T OWN THIS, this is this persons or companies” it should be fine cause you’re not stealing it really.
Aestas says
I also think that they should give you a warning.. like for example, say they found the image used somewhere they didn’t like, they should give you a 24 hour warning time to take the image down. Sure, if the blogger doesn’t do it, then by all means, sue them… or if they were making money off it, then again, that’s a whole different ball game. But I agree that if the image is just being used for fun, then why not?
And at the same time, I CAN kinda see the other side’s perspective… ugh.. its an ugly, messy issue and I think its just safer all ’round for us to keep out noses clean. It sucks, but there’s really not much we can do.
Samantha says
agreed on that whole statement.
Maria says
Oh. I’m so sorry to hear that, but I totally understand it’s a risk you can’t run. Am also so sorry that you have to “tear down” all of your beautiful work. Will miss the pics A LOT but I’ll keep on loving your blog 🙂
Aestas says
@Maria: Its was pretty heart breaking to take them down but thank you so much for your support! It means so much to me! I’m so glad you’ll be sticking around 😀