They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and it's true that sometimes a picture says all you want to say. However, there are laws that might make the use of other people's pictures here without permission potentially problematic. We're not saying that you are violating copyright laws by posting any particular item as it may and probably is fair use. We just would rather be safe than sorry. So, it is the WGOM's policy that unless you are posting a picture (or any other copyrighted material) of your own or one that we have rights to or is dedicated to the public domain (a good way to find public-domain stuff is to used the Advanced Search on Flickr and check "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content."), don't post it. If you want to link to a picture, fine. Just don't put it on this site.

This does not mean you can't post a snippet of an article that you've seen somewhere else so that you can comment on it. We believe that's fair use and allowable under copyright law. However, we ask that you please link to the article and provide attribution -- say who wrote it. We aren't saying that not providing a link or identifying the author is infringement, we are just trying to set up best practices.

If you don't follow these policies, at first, there will be gentle reminders. If you don't follow the policy after a few reminders, though, the reminders won't be so gentle.

Thanks.