Denis
do whatever you want.. in Russia, democracy and freedom)) they even allow you to publish photos from the archive of the US Air Force where Soviet ships were photographed))

Denis, I didn't ignore your point and I fully agree we need a policy for posting photographs taken by someone else. I, for one, want to keep Shipspotting.com as a site that respects copyright.

The technical quality of historical photographs is another topic.

Looks like my point is completely ignored. Then I will also start reposting here photos I didn't make but found on Fleetphoto/etc since this thing is allowed here as long as "photo by etc" is included in description.

Denis buy a camera and take a "beautiful color photo" that other people will need or don't look B&W photos,sitting at the computer and see photos or raise your ass and taking photos, these are two different ways to engage business

I agree with Pieter Inpyn. This site is set up for quality photos B&W or in color, sharp and a flat horizon. That's what the regulations say. The rule in this is clear.

The point is not about what would you like to see here: quality photo or crappy b/w (which passes rules by "the only of this ship on site" or "the only of this vessel under this name").

I'm about plain reposting from one site to another photos you didn't take. This must be stopped, or anyone from here can simply join in & share not what he took but what he found elsewhere.

A person (let's say he doesn't really care) posts a bunch of ship photos on some forum with only intention to share them with others. Other person takes them from there & posts here (he mentions the photographer or source or can even add "with permission etc") with same intention to share with others. It will keep going on as long as every actual photographer doesn't know or doesn't care about his photos spread over the web. So we allow it here? Or we must prohibit reposts unless every reposter shows a legal document or some hand written permission to the staff of this site that he is really the copyright owner or has permission to post photo he didn't take?

"On Fleetphoto there is no such problem"

Exactly, people just grab photos from one place & post it on another. The point is to share with others, copyright is like least of concerns. One can simply put who's the photographer or from where it was taken. As I said, as long as there are no complaints it will keep going on on here. Shipspotting was meant to be a place for ship enthusiasts sharing photos they took with others. Then came those who really own photos from other photographers, then those who had permission from photographers to post it on here. Then came those who simply repost with intention to share than brag "I took this photo" or "I'm the legit copyright owner now".

Well put Simonwp I agree with your views on this Personally I think this is a far more interesting photo I would rather see these old B/W images even if it is not perfect, than the shot's of these ugly uninteresting block's of floating flats they call cruise ships, and yet some people drool over them. How many ships all look very similar these days with no character or lines to them. I also like to see a really good quality photo and there are a lot of them on this site but we also have to make room for the old and very interesting ones or as Simon says it becomes boring.

I don't know about others, but personally I'd rather browse such unique older photographs even if their technical quality is not up to today's standards rather than see literally the same picture posted time and again.

"Blue Steel? Ferrari? La Tigra!? They're the same face!"

However, I agree that we need some rules with regard to whose photographs we are allowed to post particularly if there's no way of confirming that they are uploaded with the permission of the copyright holder. Also, what do we do with public domain photographs?

For the record, I have in my possession a vast slide and negative collection from a defunct shipbuilding company and on one of these days I might look if I can get black-on-white to allow publishing them under a free Creative Commons license. If I manage to do this, I'd probably approach the admins and see if I could get a permission to post them here as well under my own account.

I think there has to be a balance, some of the older photographs are very interesting, and I like to see them. Sometimes I think the site is too much about the quality of the photograph, and not enough about the ship. Of course there has to be some minimum standards, but as the site has evolved over the years, we have 100's of excellent photographs of some vessels, and I'm not too sure there is a value in that either. Things start to become boring at that point. Does yet another excellent photograph of, say, Emma Maersk, really interest most members, or would they prefer to see a less than perfect photograph of a not previously posted ship???? Personally I'd go for the latter, but it's not an easy balance to strike.

For years it is a mystery for me why bad quality b/w photos, also seen on other websites, are permitted here. The mission of this website some 20 years ago was: a website for shipspotters were they can present their good quality photos.

On Fleetphoto there is no such problem there it is important to put watermarks on the photo https://fleetphoto.ru/photo/347481/ http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1708259 https://fleetphoto.ru/photo/347485/?aid=5808 http://www.shipspotting.com/gallery/photo.php?lid=1751050

Is it true to assume that anyone can simply take photo from some (unknown/foreign) site & post it on here as long as the photographer is mentioned? Since it keeps going on here for years now, I think I too can go to our Fleetphoto & repost here a random photo from there. I will mention who's the photographer to be fair so it won't look like it's my photo. Well, I can also add something like "with permission by [photographer's name]", I mean it's not like our admins every time would go find this or that photographer & ask if he really gave me permission to post his photo on here. As long as there are no complaints not own photos can be reposted non-stop, right? Maybe the photographer wasn't asked about reposting of his photo, maybe he wouldn't/doesn't care about it since reposting one thing across various places is very normal nowadays.