Can I create a fansite?

#1

Ok, that’s probably a dumb question, but I’ve been reading about the legal stuff that you’re not suppose to upload things that is copyrighted and doesn’t belong to you…so I was wondering, would I get in trouble for putting up an image gallery of the celebrity? I won’t claim the pics as my own, I’ll say that it belongs to their respective owners…but is this allowed? I just want to ask and make sure before I apply for a hosting…

oh, and one more question, does dreamhost do account transfer? I’m hosting with this other site and I would like my files to be transfer over…(i’ve read through the hosting features, but doesn’t seem to find the answer)

#2

  1. If the images are copyrighted by someone else you will have to ask that person for permission. It’s very simple and DreamHost can’t change that fact. It may be possible to use them within fair use, but I would recommend you to contact the copyright holders anyway.

  2. I would contact support for that question.

#3

You mean will they go and transfer all your current sites over from your old host or hosts? No, I don’t think they’ll do this for regular shared hosting customers as the extra costs would drive them bankrupt.

If you search on the wiki, you’ll find several helpful articles on the subject and you can always do a search here in the General Troubleshooting forums or the Beginner’s forums. If you can’t find what you need through search, you can always ask in those forums. There’s lots of helpful people here.

If you don’t like my answer, you can always try contacting pre-sales support at the following url:
http://www.dreamhost.com/contact.cgi

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#4

Different celebrities / entertainment properties / etc. have varying attitudes about fan activity and about how strictly they enforce their copyrights and trademarks on fan activity (fan sites, unauthorized companion books, fan fiction, etc.). Some are very tolerant of stuff that might technically be a violation, while others (or their corporate management) are really strict. It’s recently been in the news that Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling has sued the publisher of an upcoming book about the Potter universe that reprints content from a fan website; Rowling had no problem with the fan publishing a website (and even promoted it on her own site), but drew the line at commercial exploitation of this material in a book.

– Dan

#5

This is very true, and is a useful point to consider.

You might also consider that, particularly in the case of “celebrity” images, the actual copyright holder of the image (the photographer, news agency, photo agency, etc.) maybe the one with an objection to the use of an imaged on a “fansite”, even if the celebrity has no objection. :wink:

–rlparker

#6

Also note that it really doesn’t matter what “the celebrity” thinks. In most cases, photos of them are NOT copyrighted by them. The copyright lies with the photographer or his/her agency. So while Mr Bigshot may be flattered by a website just about him with plenty of photos of him, even saying “yeah, I like that, that’s ok”, he really has no right to. It’s a fact easily forgotten on the net where everybody and their mother uses copyrighted pictures thinking “it’s ok, they won’t mind” instead of procuring permission or paying actual royalties.

#7

Thank you very much for all of your replies, I did some searches on google and there was some fansites hosted with dreamhost, so I guess it will probably be alright if I were to create one as well…but do you think I should contact the Sales Inquiries just incase? Or should I just go ahead and create the website anyway (since it might not be such a big problem b/c other people are doing the same thing) and, because, they’ll probably tell me to read the TOS stuff and similar to what all of you have said about the copyright materials…

#8

Yeah, I dunno what presales will be able to tell you except, as you said yourself, “Follow the rules and you’ll be ok.”

Hey, you’re creating the fansite because you’re a fan, right? Do what your heart tells you and be prepared to have fun no matter what happens. Your earnestness will come through in the site.

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#9

Oh, and don’t hock (sell) anything through your site except maybe amazon affiliate links. If you make (or try to make) money from the site it could make you a bigger target.

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#10

Thanks for the encouragement Lensman, lol that actually made me feel better :wink:

wholly, oh ok, that’s a good advice, thanks!

oh, do you guys know how often does dreamhost change their hosting package? right now it’s that 500BG one, cuz my old host will expire Januarary of next year, so I’m not sure whether I should get DH now or wait…

#11

One of the old-timers will be able to tell you more about the frequency of new plans, but my impression was that it’s every couple of years. They only get better, though, never worse.

You don’t really need to worry too much about signing up and then having a new better plan appear, either. Dreamhost has always allowed people to “upgrade” to the new plan. The “remainder” of your prepayment is applied to your new plan. For example, if you signed up for a one year $119.40 plan and switched after six months, $59.70 would be applied to your new plan. (BTW, this applies even if you used a $97 promo code to get your $119.40 one-year plan for only $22.40).

Hope this helps!

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#12