Hello all, Does iNaturalist permit the use of user-submitted photographs, including those hosted with full copyright (all rights reserved) within the confines of the iNaturalist website? I’m currently trying to boost the iNaturalist commmunity engagement of visitors to a local preserve by highligh…

There is a “fair use” case even in full copyright (you should research the laws before relying on them!). However, iNat is about community, so reach out and ask the observers if you can use their photos! Most of the ones you want to use will be from active members, so there should be a response in m…

iNaturalist doesn’t control any images featured on the website, each image is subject to the copyright laws outlined for it. You can see those by clicking on the small copyright symbol below the image in observation view. In the confines of the website, including journal posts, I think it’s fine to…

Thanks for the response zdanko. I figured as much and am willing to do the extra “leg-work” regarding requesting consent. I am currently embedding the observation within the journal post via the “HTML < a > href Attribute”. I’m not entirely sure whether this would be considered a violation of the c…

I’m not giving legal advice, but this sounds like a violation of copyright. If you follow the instructions for creative commons licenses then those images could be reproduced in this way with no concern, I think.

It’s probably best to just ask the user who uploaded the images, in any case.

Thanks, everyone for your quick replies. It looks like the “fair use” argument for the use of embedded images in social media is currently in a grey area, and leaning more towards not being protected by “fair use”. This article from The National Law Review cites a court case from just last year reg…

Use of user observations copyrighted photographs within iNaturalist journal feature

General

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Copyright Edge Case... Is it possible to post images (with set copyright permissions) that other people took... if they allow you to? General	7	990	November 21, 2021
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Use of user observations copyrighted photographs within iNaturalist journal feature

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