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I would like to use copyrighted images to analyse an AI model I am building. Images are used for non-commercial research/educational only.

I intend to make the dataset publicly available via URL links to the images (URLs stored in a text file)?

I would also like to demonstrate some images in my paper/report.

Would that be considered a copyright breach?

Mohd
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1 Answers1

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Yes, distributing to the public any licensed materials, licensed to you only, would be considered a copyright breach.

If this is only to limited audience, such as your colleagues or classroom use, this might be taken as licensed use.

You would need to examine carefully the terms of the license. Some licenses allow distribution if the original copyright message is maintained.

harrymc
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  • I don't have any license for those images. I am doing what most people are doing, scraping images from the WWW. See for example, [ImageNet](http://image-net.org/download). – Mohd Jul 21 '20 at 14:58
  • That's the worst source. For the case of [mageNet FAQ](http://image-net.org), it says: "All image URLs are freely available", and also "The images in their original resolutions may be subject to copyright, so we do not make them publicly available on our server." So they are distributing downgraded images, but they are wrong: a derived work maintains the original copyright. – harrymc Jul 21 '20 at 15:06
  • I too think the same. I believe this is a serious issue and that's why I am asking. There tons of other datasets with the same breach. But they also provide the URLs so one can always get the full size, original, image. – Mohd Jul 21 '20 at 15:14
  • The URLs are said not to be as good as the originals. If worried, you may search for original photos that are declared totally free to use by the photograph or digital painter. These are truly free. – harrymc Jul 21 '20 at 17:35
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    These might be safer: [Pixel Mob](https://app.pixelmob.co/) or [LibreStock](https://librestock.com/). – harrymc Jul 27 '20 at 08:09