h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Some art on h2g2. This is a honest question... not tying to subvert anything......but...

As I unserstand it we cannot use any art, etc, other than the
official "blobs", right? (Copyright...)

Now - in the short time I have been surfing around h2g2, I have noticed that "top brass" types have pics of their kids, etc, posted. Howzat?

Have I mised something, or is there a bouble standard operating in some way?

Before h2g2 joined the BBC, everyone could include pictures on their pages, though these pictures had to be stored off-site, as h2g2 doesn't allow uploading of pictures to our servers. Obviously those of us in the team used the h2g2 servers, as we have access to them.

On joining the BBC, however, it was found that allowing off-site images potentially breaks copyright law, so we had to disable this feature, and we are going to implement a system that allows everyone to upload their own pictures to our servers. Until that time, however, only the in-house team can upload pictures, and we do every now and then into Edited Entries and our Personal Spaces. We also allow authors of Edited Entries to send us their own artwork for their entries if they like, but this doesn't happen much (though check out the entries on Piers of the Isle of Wight, which is one example of this working).

So the solution to this apparent 'double standard' is coming, but until then we can't offer picture uploading across the board. Soon it won't be an issue.

Hope this helps answer your question.

OK thanks

I notice though that a lot of the pictures are quite specific, i.e. they are not just a random set of pictures and many obviously have been generated for certain articles. Many are a particular style though and look like they have been drawn by a one artist. I wondered whether this means that there is someone you can ask to draw pictures on your behalf...

Bambi