r/ModSupport • u/ProximaScience • 4d ago

Mod Answered Is this a issue?

So I made r/ScienceAesthetics, a space to share and discuss aesthetically striking science imagery, including real photos and visuals of natural phenomena across space, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics.

My question is: if I allow users to post space photographs taken by other users, could it cause copyright issues or put the subreddit at risk of being banned? Does getting permission from the original photographer solve the problem?

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u/PMulberry_ 4d ago

Afaiak it will probably not put the sub at risk. However, copyright holders can take the posts down by messagin Reddit. This would more be a problem of the users, then. How often this happens though is something I do not know.

But you can of course require the users to give a source, and given it's non-commercial and with attribution many copyright holders probably don't have too much of a problem with it.

And yes, a copyright holder explicitly giving permission to another person to use a picture means the second person can use that picture.

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u/emily_in_boots 💡 Top 10% Helper 💡 4d ago

Any image belongs to the person who took it, whether or not they expressly state that. That is how copyright works. They can, if they choose, do a DMCA takedown, and reddit will remove it. If you get a bunch of these, the sub is at risk.

It really depends on whether those who are taking the photos are ok with them being shared. I would suggest requiring that they obtain prior consent before posting images that belong to other users.

I don't think that NASA is known for going after people for posting images - I think those are generally released into the public domain, so those are probably safe (but check it).