Some Notes about Copyrights

Well, let's put it this way:
When you grab an image off of someone's page and publish it on your own, with no reference to the creator, someone else comes along and sees that image and does the same thing...this can then continue for quite a long time until the image is all over the place but no-one knows where it came from... In the end, you find yourself seeing a picture that you drew, or a photograph that you shot, appearing in places that you were never told about, with no reference to yourself or anything! In some cases, you don't even WANT to see the picture there....

The trouble is- that just isn't fair. Not only that, but there are laws protecting the creators from just these cases! This is also called: Plagiarism.

All images that appear in Frogland have been used with permission of the originators. However, in some cases, the permission includes a specific request that credit is given where it's due. (I always provide credit even when folks don't specify that it's required, simply because I think this is really the right thing to do.)
If you want to print the pictures here at Frogland for personal use (like for your locker or bedroom wall or whatever), this is ok. Infact, if you want to use my pictures for your computer desktop and stuff like that it's fine with me too...I did, afterall, post these images to share with you all!

But, when you grab any images (not just from Frogland) from the web and publish it, including in a web site, you absolutely should be considerate and ask permission first. You should be aware that technically, even though it's not printed in a book or on paper, all webpages are considered publications!

It is probably true that around 90% of all the pirated images on the web were not taken with the intent to upset the creators, but please keep in mind that just as you probably wouldn't want your stuff spread around the world without any credit to you, others who have taken these great photographs and drawn these pictures and were gracious enough to share them with the rest of us, deserve to be credited for their efforts and work! If we all bear this in mind when publishing the pictures of others, the web can stay a friendly place, and people will still feel like it's worthwhile to share their work with the rest of the world on the Internet. Otherwise, we'll end up getting stuck looking at the same pictures because no one trusts anyone enough to ever share anything again!

For more about this topic, please read this informative web page:

• 10 Big Myths about copyright explained

The images that have no comments by them I drew myself. (This includes all the froggy backgrounds) In these cases, you are welcome to use them (for non commercial purposes) and do not need to ask permission first ON THE CONDITION that you provide a link to Frogland someplace on your website or tell folks about my website someplace in your publication! (Afterall, I've put a lot of work into this huge website and would like to share it with the world!)

If you choose to do use any of my images on your own web page, please be nice and include a link back to Frogland somewhere in your web pages.


The correct web address is:
http://allaboutfrogs.org/
If it's a frog page, let me know and I'll add a link to you too!
Note: theres special graphics for linking and stuff available if you want them...
Click here for details on linking to my site!

That does not, however, cover all you should do when you include the pictures that are credited to others! Any image with comments next to them means I didn't do the picture, so I can't speak for their wishes!


• When contact information is given, you should always ask the creator of the image before you use it anywhere. Anyways, it's always appreciated when a note is dropped to the owner to let them know you like it.
  One more note: Frogland has been around for quite a few years (that's like centuries in web time!)...and sometimes the email address of the contact stops working...in these cases it's likely that whoever it was changed email addresses and didn't update me, or perhaps they don't bother to have an email account at all anymore... As long as you're using the image for non commercial purposes, its probably ok for these cases as long as you go ahead and include credit info with the image... (at least you tried!)


• In some cases, no contact information is given and instead there's a name or webpage address or website reference given. For these cases, when you grab an image you MUST include the same types of credit info next to the pictures as you see here at Frogland. Otherwise you may inadvertently upset the originator of the image! (Some of them simply don't have email, or don't mind you using the picture AS LONG AS the picture is properly credited)

No image appearing on this website should EVER be used without the express permission of the originator for any commercial purposes! In addition, please DO NOT post any images here in any sort of re-distributable image archive, whether it be commercial or on the Web!

For more info about how I made some of the silly drawings appearing on this website, please see the About all Frog Images found in Frogland page.

I often get asked about how to cite my webpages in school reports...
Actually, the web is fairly new, and standard guidelines are still getting defined... but some general guidelines seem to be coming together. Because of the ever-changing nature of the World Wide Web, the guidelines are not as strict as they are for other published sources, (as far as I can tell anyways).
For example, the last name is really not required if it isn't available for you to be able to cite the webpage. (and I don't like my last name printed on my webpages for privacy reasons, so you wont be able to use mine)
Similarly, many websites don't even have a name at all to go with their webpages. In these cases, you can simply state what you do know about the source, skipping the parts that aren't available.

The general guidelines for humanities style bibliography citations for electronic sources go like this:


1. Give the author's name
   This usually goes last name first, (if it's known)
2. Next, the full title of the work
   This goes in quotation marks, and if it's a section or article of a website that you are referencing, that's what would go here. If you are just referencing the whole website, you'd put the website title here.
3. Then you put in the title of the complete work
   If you are referencing a section of a site, the main site title would go here (in italics or underlined)
4. Next, any version or file numbers
   If the section or article has version numbers listed this would go here (Frogland usually doesn't have these, so you'd skip this part to reference my site.)
5. Then, the date of the document or last revision
   This would be like the "last updated on..." date (if available)
6. Next, list the protocol (e.g., "http") and the full URL(address) to the website
7. Finally, put in the date of you accessed the page/site in parentheses.
   This is very important because webpages change regularly.

To cite my website, I'm ok with not having my last name used.
An example citation for a weird frog facts section, would be:

Dorota. "Weird Frog Facts." Frogland. (1999) http://allaboutfrogs.org/ (Accessed 12 Nov. 1999).

Note in the section above: I wrote 1999 because the website gets updated on a weekly if not daily basis (depending on how busy I am). You could use the date on the front page where it sais "Site last modified:" to be more accurate.

More interesting resources:


• How do you cite URL's in a bibliography?
• Documenting Your Sources
• Bibliographic Formats for Citing Electronic Information

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