Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

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Robert T
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Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

We will shortly be implementing a change to the way that images in the Knowledgebase articles are hosted. The images in these articles are key to their usefulness and are currently vulnerable to being lost by virtue of the fact that they are hosted in external photobucket/flikr etc. accounts.

In order to safeguard the usefulness of the Knowledgebases, ALL images in the articles will be hosted on the zroadster.net website. The image hosting process is entirely automatic - there will be no need for you do anything in order to convert either existing or new articles. All images hosted on the zroadster.net site will carry a zroadster.net logo watermark.

Please note that this only applies to articles in the Knowledgebases, and not posts in other areas of board, or to signature pics.

The Admin Team.
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Southernboy
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Southernboy »

That is a really good idea...well done guys! :cheers
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Robert T
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

This change is now live. :)

Cheers R.
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Brian H
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Brian H »

Robert T wrote:This change is now live. :)

Cheers R.

Looking good Robert, I bet that was A PITA to do!
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pingu
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by pingu »

For clarification purposes, please confirm who owns the rights to the images that are hosted on the site.
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BladeRunner919
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by BladeRunner919 »

Great idea Robert - nothing worse than a useful post from a few years previously that all the image links have disappeared from. Well done. :D
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Jonttt »

Cool.

The only thing I would say is the Zroadster logo is a little large and whilst I appreciate its purpose it could fulfill that without being so distracting on some of the pics ?

There is always one, you can't please all of the members all of the time ;-)

I have no problem with this process but to pick up on Pingu's implied point their could be an issue over copyright by automating the process. Image copyright is a legal mindfield and whilst I accept that by posting text on a forum you are passing over rights to that text I'm not so sure an image hosted on a 3rd party site and not directly imbedded in the text would follow the same legality.

If the terms and conditions at the time the thread was posted confirmed this then maybe it would be covered but I'm not sure they accounted for this eventuality.

Also the 3rd party hosting company may have an issue with images hosted by them being stripped to host elsewhere.

Whilst I appreciate and agree with the motive for doing this at the same time you could be entering a legal minefield ;-)
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by nero »

Saw this article recently - maybe worth a read

10 Bogus Excuses People Use When They Steal Photos from the Web
BMWCCScotland

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Robert T
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

Regarding the size of the watermark - I can probably shrink the watermark on smaller images and I may even turn it off on some images altogether.

Regarding copyright, I appreciate this can be a thorny issue. This is only being applied to knowledgebase articles which have been "gifted" to the site for the benefit of others - we previously used the attachment mechanism to add images to articles, but unfortunately had to insist that people host their own images as disk space was limited. All we are trying to offer is a minimum hassle free image hosting solution to so that contributors work is not lost.

There is already mention in the T&Cs on the registration page that all site content is copyright zroadster.net, which can be taken to mean that anything you post becomes the property of the forum. We can't retrospectively apply this to images that are being linked to, so we can't assert copyright over them. If we wanted to use them for any other purpose, then we would have to ask permission just like anyone else.

I am happy to provide an opt-out mechanism for anyone who has a problem with our hosting their images, but to do so would probably mean pulling the entire article, or at least moving it out of the knowledgebase into the normal forum areas.

I hope that clarifies things. And no, my name is not Mark Zuckerberg.

Cheers R.
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Dave L2
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Dave L2 »

I would rather the images be hosted here, at least I know Rob won't be selling copies to line his own pockets, unlike photobucket.
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Del »

Not sure if the postings on here (however good) constitute a literary masterpiece of intellectual property :D
Except perhaps for mine
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by pingu »

As I understand it, the copyright of an image belongs to the owner of the host website. I always link from my own website. This means that I retain copyright.

I think the best option would have been to warn people that this was going to be done, and to reword the Ts+Cs.

I doubt if there would have been any detractors, but to do it without warning is a bit naughty.

No-one will mind in the slightest until one of the images is reproduced in the media (very unlikely, but you never know), then there may be a small discussion over who owns the image.

BTW, I've got no images in the knowledgebase, so I'm not bothered what you do in that area of the website.
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Brian H
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Brian H »

pingu wrote:As I understand it, the copyright of an image belongs to the owner of the host website. I always link from my own website. This means that I retain copyright.....
Just looked at the Photobucket Ts&Cs.
photobucket Ts&Cs wrote:Content & Privacy
You retain all your rights to any Content you submit, upload or display on or while using Photobucket. This means that you own all the Content you post and are responsible for its settings:
If you make your album private you are OK, if your album/s public the following applies:-
photobucket Ts&Cs wrote:When you make your Content public, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to copy, distribute, stream, post publicly display (e.g. post it elsewhere), reproduce and create derivative works from it (meaning things based on it), anywhere, whether in print or any kind of electronic version that exists now or is later developed, for any purpose, including a commercial purpose.
By making your content public, you are also giving other Members on Photobucket the right to copy, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and create derivative works from it via the Site, third party websites or applications (for example, via services allowing Members to order prints of Content or t-shirts and similar items containing Content, and via social media websites), provided such use is not for a commercial purpose.
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by XVar »

Erm, something appears to have gone wonky in the image migration, all of the images in this knowledge base article that I wrote have been replaced with different, unrelated images!

http://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopi ... 18&t=30471
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Robert T
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

Thanks for letting me know, XVar. I'll investigate and fix.

Cheers R.

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Robert T
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

All fixed now, XVar. I ran into an issue with duplicate filenames, which I fixed, but I did not reapply it to all the articles, and unfortunately yours got caught in the firing line. :oops:

Cheers R.
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by XVar »

Well, there's no broken images any more but about 50% of the images showing aren't the ones from that knowledge base article :?
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Robert T
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

You may need to force your browser to reload the images, as it has likely cached the wrong ones. With Firefox I had to do Shift+Reload to get it to update, as initially I saw exactly this and was similarly puzzled. All the images I am now seeing look like they relate to the article - lots of speakers and wiring. :)

Cheers R.
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by XVar »

Ah yes, viewing it in incognito mode in Chrome shows everything as it should be - good job :)
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Re: Changes to Knowledgebase Image Hosting

Post by Robert T »

No worries. Apologies for the cock up.

Cheers R.
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