Terms of Use

Copyright Issues

Look, no one wants you ripping off their images. It is your responsibility to receive permission for saving and re-publishing other people's work. Copying of copyrighted images is prohibited.

For the most part, WebScissors goes by the honor system, and trust that our users will educate themselves on the various copyright laws that apply to them. With over 2000 queries each day, we don't have the time or resources to actively hunt down people who are using the tool for inappropriate uses. But perhaps the following links will help some well-meaning users from breaking rules/laws that they did not realize existed.

• Understanding Internet Copyright

• Association for the Protection of Internet Copyright

• 10 Big Myths About Copyright Explained

• Copyright Awareness Rights & Education (C.A.R.E.)

Disallowed URLs List

If you are the owner of a web site that contains copyrighted images, and you would prefer that WebScissors users not have access to your site, you can send us a request to have your site(s) added to our Disallowed URLs list, so that WebScissors will not attempt to view the images on your sites.

This will protect your images from being accessed by WebScissors. However, there are a lot of other tools out there that provide similar functionality but are less concerned about image theft than we are. To protect your images from being accessed via those tools against your will, there are several server-side methods you can use to make your images inaccessible to automated tools. The following links are only two examples:

• Using the CHImageGuard PHP Script
• Using .htaccess

If you are concerned that WebScissors was "designed to help people steal copyrighted images" and wish to lead a bloody campaign to get the site torn down and the maintainers heads posted on a pike outside the city gates, please read the WebScissors Instructions and the story of WebScissors, to educate yourself on the true purpose of WebScissors and realize that we are, in fact, not evil after all. Taking up yoga or an anger management class might be helpful, too.   ;^)