Do clip-art data mining sites have legal rights to the clip art?

[Andy D]

Using Google reverse image look up more and more, it seems
that most clip-art & image sites are nothing more that data miners, that scour
the web looking for free clip-art and images, to host on their site and they
put their own watermark on them... Just wondering if anyone knows if that's correct?

I know this is a sensitive topic to many here... It's just something I have been wondering about for a while.

 

[Andy D]

Examples :

 

[bannertime]

I don't believe so because there are options to report infringements.

 

[shoresigns]

Yeah, you really have to learn to figure out which sites are legit and which are just pirating everything. It's the same for fonts.

 

[EffectiveCause]

Although it could also be that the artist sold a license to all 3 places

 

[Andy D]

Although it could also be that the artist sold a license to all 3 places

Could be, but that was just the first three sites of hundreds that came up.

 

[Fred Weiss]

The Google image search simply shows you where it finds the image on the web. Those sites may be end users who have acquired the image through available licensing or it may be a legitimate stock site like DepositPhotos.com who contracts with the artist to market the image in return for royalties. It may also be a site which has not acquired the image legitimately. Clipart artists, among others, use the search to determine who may have the image displayed and available for download without a license granting that right.

There really isn't much value in mining a low resolution image and then offering it for paid or free download.

 

[EffectiveCause]

Could be, but that was just the first three sites of hundreds that came up.

Starving artists got eat too