# Please don't knowingly flag images as copyrighted when they're not

**URL:** <https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/please-dont-knowingly-flag-images-as-copyrighted-when-theyre-not/7423>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [October 22, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/please-dont-knowingly-flag-images-as-copyrighted-when-theyre-not/7423 "2019-10-22T22:19:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 13

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**Author:** ![tiwane](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/tiwane/32/54612_2.png) [@tiwane](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/tiwane)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2019, 3:18am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/please-dont-knowingly-flag-images-as-copyrighted-when-theyre-not/7423/13 "2019-10-24T03:18:14Z")

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Regarding the general topic, I agree that it’s best to not flag something as a copyright violation unless you can prove it actually is one, but this isn’t always possible (eg a photo of a photo in a book rather than one stolen from a website). Here’s a good thread about this: [https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/spotting-copyright-violations/3287](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/spotting-copyright-violations/3287)

> [@annkatrinrose](#):
>
> I haven’t done any flagging yet but I have seen pictures of children obviously taking pictures of each other and thought those might run afoul of COPPA. What would be the proper way to deal with those?

I’d have to do some legal consulting about this, but from the little research I’ve done regarding street photography, laws vary quite a bit from country to country and it can get pretty muddled. Regardless, it’s not a copyright issue so would be best served as a topic for a different discussion.

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