During the years we have operated this site ony one person has requested that we provide credit for a particular photo, which we then did even though that photo had been used in accordance with the fair use doctrine.  We believe that all material on this site is used in compliance with the fair use doctrine in that the material is used for educational purposes, it is of fact-based conent, the site is non-profit, and use of the material on this site has no market effect.   Below are explanations of the fair use doctrine.  If anyone feels that their copyrighted material has been used on DigiCamHistory.Com in violaltion of the fair use doctrine please notify us and we will respond  accordinly. 


 Fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, search engines, criticism, parody, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author's work under a four-factor balancing test.  The term "fair use" originated in the United States. A similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.  Fair use is one of the traditional safety valves intended to balance the public's interest in open access with the property interests of copyright holders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use


 One of the more important limitations is the doctrine of “fair use.” The doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and has been codified in section 107 of the copyright law.
Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.
1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

We are in compliance of Section 107 as follows:

 1.  DigiCamHistory.Com is a non-commercial site operated at our own expense for educational purposes.  As such, our site is clearly in the public interest and has been used by researchers, authors and students world-wide since its inception.  It averages more than 5 million hits per year.  
2.  A photograph of any particular camera looks like any other photograph of the same camera and can by no means be considered a work of art.
3.  A photograph of a single camera cannot be considered a substantial part of any work.
4.  Photos of standard consumer cameras have no known market value.