Copyright Policy on E-Commerce sites product images (such as HP)

[Bill Davis]

Their marketing department should be able to direct you to an internal FTP site that has what you need.
What you download from there is purpose designed for public promotion and will free you from copyright issues so long as you are sent the link through legitimate company channels.
Whoever your contact is at the business that reps HP will surely have the company contact you need.
If you go outside the company chain, you might end up dealing with either grey or black market channels that could put you at some risk.
If the seller you’re working with doesn’t have legit company contacts, it’s not a good sign.
Be a bit careful.
Hope that helps.

“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor

[Richard Herd]

It sounds like your hands are tied until you get legitimate photos to use. However, to show your client that your code is working properly, you can use other photos but be sure to watermark them as DEMO or something that renders them useless.

[Jonathan Ziegler]

Hi there, just saw your post. Don’t worry about it, really. Product manufacturers generally understand you need pictures in order to sell THEIR products. Consequently, they want you to have the best possible images to use on retails sites. You only really have to worry if you are misrepresenting yourself (ie: YOU are claiming to BE HP or whatever).

HP is a massive array of products and companies and you can go here:

https://h18006.https://www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/productbulletin.html#intro

This is their “product bulletin” page. Look on the left side, there is a Product Photos link and you can download even print-size images of their products for retail sales websites or a catalog. Look there for product descriptions, sale points, etc. I used to do an online store for a client which was all music-related gear and we did a catalog before the website, too. Some companies want you to sign an agreement, but HP does so much wholesaling with so many companies, it doesn’t make sense to force you to sign something (notice the site doesn’t even give basic usage guidelines).

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293

[Jonathan Ziegler]

Sorry, I totally bunged up that link. Let’s try again:

https://h18006.https://www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/ProductBulletin.html#intro

For some reason the browser won’t let me cut and paste anything so if it gets goofed up:

Search Google for “hp download product images” (minus the quotes) and its the second link.

I think the script on COW is looking for “www” and it just drops the https:// in front by default which is wrong in this case, but there you go.

You will also notice you can download the HP Product Bulletin app for Windows. I’m on a Mac so I have no clue what this is, but I’m guessing its an easy way to get product vitals, stats, specs, etc.

Jonathan Ziegler
https://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293

[Nick Urquhart]

Thanks so much guys, all the advice helped a lot. I won’t worry as much about infringement, I definitely see your point on that Jonathan.

To be on the safe side, I will at least contact all the suppliers and make them aware of the site, just to say I told them.

Thanks again!

Nick