Photo Use

My content

(HARTride 2012)

In recent years, I’ve been dealing with individuals who for whatever reason – wind up stealing my photos & videos & either out right claimed them as their own, or expressed that they’ve obtained permission from me to use my content when none such permission was ever granted. Because of this, I’ve had to step-up efforts to watermark or otherwise place copyright captioning on all of my photos. I’m also devising a way to discourage others from stealing my videos and claiming them as their own.

With that being said, you will notice that photos that were taken by me prior to August 1, 2015 will not have a copyright tag. This is changing however as I go through each of the pages here on The Guidebook. Photography that has been released into the Public Domain will be noted accordingly, as will contributor photography.

So onward with regards to my own photography. Please keep in mind that this is a not-for-profit operation. I do not make money off The Guidebook, and I feel that you should not either. However, if you do have such a request to use my content for non-profit generating purposes (this includes quoting blog posts and site pages), I will ask that you contact me so that you may obtain written permission from me to use such content. You must clearly state in your inquiry as to your intended use of my content. I will also ask that when you share my content, that you credit me properly. If you are sharing my content on a website, I will ask in addition that you provide a link to The Guidebook.

For those of you who wish to use my content/photos for PROFIT GENERATING PURPOSES (INCLUDING FOR-PROFIT BUSINESSES) MUST CONTACT ME FIRST TO OBTAIN WRITTEN PERMISSION! NO EXCEPTIONS!

Others’ Content

(Including Guidebook team members)

As I mentioned before, there are many photos on my website/blog that include photos and information that were submitted to me by others. This creates another layer of legalities because not only will you have to gain my written permission to use the photo/content, but I will also need to contact the original owner of the content to gain his or her permission as well. Some of my contributors have also chosen to watermark their photos to help deter copyright infringement.

The same rules as mentioned above in the first category (Content that belongs to me, HARTride 2012.) will apply to this category also. WRITTEN PERMISSION MUST BE OBTAINED FOR CONTENT THAT WAS SUBMITTED TO ME BY OTHERS! NO EXCEPTIONS!

For photos that provided to me by a transit agency (i.e. HART, PSTA, etc), YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT THE AGENCY’S REPRESENTATIVE TO GAIN PERMISSION TO USE THEIR PHOTO(S). NO EXCEPTIONS! ~ These photos were obtained by written permission of the agency’s representative.

Public Domain Content

You don’t need advance permission from me to use any photo of mine that is listed in the Public Domain. Now let me be clear on this; this exception only applies to photos that I’ve released into the Public Domain via Wikipedia. The reason why I’ve released certain photos into the Public Domain was to use them on the various articles that I’ve edited in Wikipedia prior to 2012. Since this time, Wikipedia has pretty much made the Creative Commons licensing the standardized default for uploading new photos to the site.

Stock Photos

In some cases, I’ve used stock photos to illustrate sections of the website by which I do not have my own photos or any contributor photos readily available to post. These photos were downloaded from Pexels.com & I thank all of the amazing photographers for sharing their work for website administrators, content creators, & other members of the general public to utilize. Please keep in mind however, that I do not actively endorse any third party photography website.