General Question

Russter's avatar

Is it legal to run a website that reviews other companies products and uses their images?

Asked by Russter (242points) August 14th, 2012

So I’m thinking of doing a website that reviews products. My question is, how legal is it to take information (images, screenshots, youtube videos, etc) from someone else to review their product? Here’s an example: http://www.famigo.com/ They review lots of mobile apps for kids, using a lot of resources (images, etc), that they took from other people. Is this okay? If so, is there anything to watch out for so I don’t break copyright rules, etc?

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2 Answers

DrewJ's avatar

Sorry for the short response: Yes. It is legal.

You can use anything the company uses to promote their product. Any descriptions and all that is public information, you just can’t claim that you own it or wrote it yourself or anything like that. You can even use their product images since you are reviewing the product. However, you can’t sue it for site design purposes.

Patton's avatar

You can use the images and descriptions, like @DrewJ says, but be sure to note the source. If you’re using a product description, say that it’s the product description from the company’s website (or wherever it’s from). If you’re using an image, include a photo credit. You might not be legally required to be perfectly scrupulous about these things, but it’s standard courtesy that could keep people from attempting to interfere with your site.

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