Where to Find Eldar Pics and What Online Service to Use?

It has been an interesting few weeks. Less than a month ago, the extremely popular Warhammer 40K rumour blog Faeit212 was taken down by Google (he since returned to this temporary site).

It is widely suspected – including by me – that Faeit212 was taken down in response to a DMCA complaint GW sent to Google, owner of Blogger, for blog posts by Natfka containing GW images.

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#1 – The Eldar Arrive and the Blogo-sphere reacts

Over the last few days, White Dwarf images of the new Eldar miniatures for Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40K game have started to appear on the internet. These Eldar images on the intertubes can safely be considered the first “post-Faeit212-lockdown-leak”.

It is interesting to see how people deal with these Eldar images. I’ve seen three types of reactions:

1. Avoid them completely. There are sites – Warseer being one of them – that simply forbid these pictures being posted or – sometimes – even linked to. Fair enough. If you have a humming online presence and don’t want to go anywhere near pictures that may be illegal to post and share (I wouldn’t know, I am no lawyer), it makes sense to be safe, and not sorry.
2. Post them as always. Some blogs and websites simply post the new pictures as they always have. It is news, and new miniatures are coming out, thus posting new pictures may well be a legitimate and fair thing to do (again, I wouldn’t know, I am no lawyer).
3. Switch Publication Channels. Some people have taken to sharing the pictures, using sites like Imgur, 4chan and, most notably Facebook, but avoided posting them on their blog (with some people posting links and some even avoiding that).

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#2 – Is It Really Games Workshop Legal You Fear?

The last, third strategy strikes me as thoroughly confused. At least if you want to avoid legal trouble with Games Workshop and especially if you post GW-pics on Facebook along with a heavy dose of GW-bashing (which, frankly, is all sorts of twisted in other ways as well).

If it is wrong to post pictures of the Eldar (I wouldn’t know, I am no lawyer), than it would be illegal no matter where you share them. Twitter, Facebook and all the rest have your contact details just like Blogger/YouTube/Google does.

Games Workshop certainly has gone to court before (hello Chapterhouse). They may do so again. If you want to be absolutely safe from that, it would be advisable to stick with Option 1 above.

However, if you “feel safe” posting pictures on Facebook, a vBulletin-site, etc.., but don’t “feel safe” posting on a Blogger-site or YouTube channel, you’re real beef isn’t with Games Workshop.

It is with Google.

If (!) the Faeit212-blog was taken down in response to this complaint letter (and as far as I followed the story, Natfka didn’t even had that confirmed by Google), it was just that: a complaint letter.

A complaint letter isn’t a legal action before court. Everyone can write a complaint letter to Google.

• If you post a picture of a Mars Bar on Blogger, Mars Incorporated can send Google a letter.
• If you post a movie still from Iron Man 3, Marvel Studios can send Google a letter.
• If you post a piece of digital art from DeviantArt without asking, the guy who made it can send Google a letter.

It doesn’t take a lawyer or legal department to do that. Hell, people could just use the letter up on Chilling Effects and plug in their own contact details: DMCA-complaint letter in less than a minute.

I am not advocating that you use pictures you shouldn’t use. Obviously you should always have permission to use people’s stuff from Flickr, DeviantArt, etc.. . always reference the source. Etc… .

But if you feel at risk on your blog (but less so on.. say.. Facebook), especially if you are running an online-business, I’d recommend you think hard about who you trust with your online presence!

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#3 – Who Do You Trust With Your Online Presence?

Do you have a Blogger-blog? A YouTube-channel? A different blog? A commission-painting studio? An online-store for games, miniatures and/or painting supplies?

If so, who do you trust with your internet-presence and why? Have you looked at the Terms of Use?

Do you think you could get in trouble as a consequence of a simple complaint letter (as opposed to an actual case filed before court)? Do you trust your service provider?

Let me know what you think?

Z.

P.S.: If you’re looking for pictures of the new Eldar, here’s a good collection of what’s out there.