Am i allowed to use pictures of celebrities on my website that i believe to be public domain and are submitted to me by my members as not infringing on anyones copyright. I will have a disclaimer to this effect and will also remove any pictures if anyone contacts me saying a picture is infringing on copyright.
Answers:
You can't pass the legal responsibilities to those who send you the photographs. If you are infringing copyright, the infringement is by publishing the photos. "I didn't realise" is not a defence.
However, having said that once a photo is published on another website, you have the right to re-produce it as long as it not for commercial gain.
For example, taking a photo from the "Hello" website and putting it onto t-shirts for sale will get you into hot water. Merely putting it on a website will not.
Photos taken by members of the public and sent to you do not fall within copyright.
Additional Info: I agree with Grishnak's answer below as well.
That's fine - just make sure the disclaimer is well shown - someone got done recently for just this type of thing and got well and truly screwed by the promoter
CELEBS AR PUBLIC DOMAIN BY DEFAULT!
PHOTOGRAPHS BELONG TO THE PHOTOGRAPHER THAT TOOK THEM..
SO YOU CAN TAKE THEM YOURSELF OR PAY SOMEONE FOR THE COPYRIGHT TO USE THEM...
The pictures would need to have been taken in a public place. You can't use the photos to promote a commercial product or service. And you would need the permission of the copyright holder. You say these are photos that are in the public domain but photographers do not as a general rule just give away their rights to these types of photos so I would be very careful about making assumptions about whether a photo is in the public domain.
*** JZD says, "Photos taken by members of the public and sent to you do not fall within copyright."
This is hilarious. Copyright is copyright, regardless of who took the picture or where it was taken or how you received it!
There is no such thing as "public domain" for any recent photographs (since 1923), unless they were taken by an employee of the U.S. government (therefore not copyrightable). SOMEBODY owns the copyright until it expires (say, 99 years after the photographer died).
In the USA, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has specific provisions protecting websters who innocently permit users to publish copyrighted materials owned by others.
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