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Legal Disclaimer
This website supports the American Constitution's 5th Amendment, The Right to Free Speech.
This Website may or may not reflect the views or opinions of the administrators, authors or contributors connected to BlueCollarWorld.net. It is the Legal Policy of this website to delete profane, obscene, or libelous comments if and when used. If you find any such post containing libelous remarks against any one individual, we need to be notified about this. At no time, will any contributor, administrator, or author connected to this site be open to any legal action or damages as a result of expressing their experience or opinions on this site.
Policies to Follow for Any Post
Any and all contributors to this site are held accountable to the posting policies. Please refrain from the use of obscene language. Please do not single out any one individual by posting their personal information on line.
Anyone who feels a particular comment is tasteless, libelous or inappropriate should inform the forum moderator (gwj@bluecollarworld.net). Please bring any and all such posts to our attention that you feel are not in compliance with these policies.
Fair Use of Company Logos, Names of Service Corporations, Photos of Logos and People
At no time will any administrator, author or contributor be held accountable for any legal action arising out of the post of the name of the firm and or posting a graphic featuring the company's logo. This is classified as fair use, and is used merely for illustration purposes only.
Whether you need to obtain a release depends on why you want to use a person's name or image. If your use is for commercial purposes for example, using a person's photo in an advertisement you should acquire a release. If your use is for informational purposes such as a news article, a release is not required. However, even if a release is not required, you should be careful that your use does not defame or invade the privacy of the individual. If there's any potential that your use might violate these laws, a release will provide legal protection. Sorting out these differences can be confusing, and we provide some examples in the sections below. When in doubt, however, it's never a bad idea to first obtain a signature for the release of the photo(s) to be published on-line.
Several factors are weighed to determine whether the use of a name or image on a website is commercial or informational:
* If the use of the name or image at the website relates to a newsworthy event, the use is more likely to be informational.
* The more website space devoted to selling, the less likely the use is informational.
* The longer the person's name or image remains at the site, the use is less likely to be informational.
* The more separation between the informational content and the sponsorship of the site and related advertisements, the more likely the use is informational.
A person's name or image can be used for commercial purposes without permission if the commercial use qualifies as free speech. This generally occurs when the use is categorized as a parody.
For example, a company sold trading cards featuring caricatures of major league baseball players. Text on the cards ridiculing player salaries and egos included a statement: Cardtoons baseball is a parody and is NOT licensed by Major League Baseball Properties or Major League Baseball Players Association. A federal court permitted the use of player's names and caricatured images as free speech. (Cardtoons v. Major League Baseball Players Assn., 838 F. Supp. 1501 (N.D. Okla. 1993).)
However, individuals wary of litigation should weigh the consequences and costs of a lawsuit before claiming a free speech right to use an individual's name or image.
It is the policy of this BLOG to remove any personal photo(s) or company logo(s) if the person or company depicted in the photo can cite no signed release was obtained before it's publication or if the photo(s) constitute a defamatory issue toward the person(s) or company by having the photo(s) posted here. Nude or obscene photos, copyrighted photos, or commercial stock photos scraped from Google or Yahoo images robot are not acceptable photos to be posted here and once we are notified of such, they shall be removed when we are notified. At no time should you upload commercial audio, music or AAC encoded MP3 music files. If any photo remains published on BlueCollarWorld.net, the longer it remains uncontested, the photo(s) shall be classified under free speech, and shall remain published.
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