Website copyright laws

[Superman]

Hey can someone answer a question for me? I am pretty sure that it's legal to put pics from movies on a website as long as the webmaster doesn't profit from them, right? Just for my information, can you tell me why it's legal for D. Wong to accept donations for a Star Wars site? I am making my own site so any info would help. Thanks.

[General Zod]

when you accept donations to keep a site running, but don't require donations to access the content of that site then it's legal as you're not actually making a profit from the works present. you're just asking people to help keep the site up. it's the whole optional aspect largely. of course if the person who originally made the artwork says that they don't want their work spread about without explicit permission, then that may be problematic, even if you aren't taking credit for their work.

[phongn]

Hey can someone answer a question for me? I am pretty sure that it's legal to put pics from movies on a website as long as the webmaster doesn't profit from them, right? Just for my information, can you tell me why it's legal for D. Wong to accept donations for a Star Wars site? I am making my own site so any info would help. Thanks.

Mike's site falls under the Fair Use provision of copyright law, since his site does analysis of SW. Merely creating an image gallery is probably copyright violation.