Copyright rules for wallhaven

Hi everyone i just wanted to know if all photos here on wallhaven are copyrighted or if you are allowed to use photos without asking them also are there like a mark or some kind of indicator that show if the photo is copyrighted or not.

Most of your questions are already answered by reading the rules.

Rules

• Attribute the author wherever possible.
• Do not upload content from banned sources.
• Do not remove artist signatures/watermarks.

These are the only rules about copyright, also a disclaimer at the bottom of the site clearly states, that "All images remain property of their original owners.", so even if you respect every rule about uploading copyrighted material, the original owner could ask to take them down, and Wallhaven would have to oblige, and maybe add the site of origin to the list of banned sources.

So just remember these 3 points, keep yourself up to date by reading the banned source list, and you should be fine.

Thanks you so much, i must admit i feel kind of stupid for not reading the rules first maybe i should go do so now :) but anyway thanks.

No problem, they are at a tricky place at the bottom of the site, I missed them first too! ;)

In US law, and this is the same for many countries internationally too, copyright is automatically given to the creator of an original work as soon as it's completed, so just about everything on here is 'owned' by someone.

However, watermarks in themselves don't indicate copyright, and copyright notices aren't required for something to be protected by law. The real issue is distribution rights, which usually aren't mentioned. That doesn't mean that something can be freely shared, but it also doesn't mean that it can't be. What you can do, which is what we do (and how we can really exist at all), is to 'use' whichever images as you like unless the owner comes forward and asks you to stop. Unless you're making money off it, you'll be fine and it's just a slap on the wrist. We find that the majority of artists, at least from places like dA, are fine by us hosting their work as long as they're attributed.

tl;dr: no, you don't have to ask in most cases.

The assumption here, of course, is that you mean to use the images for personal purposes. If you mean to use them for commercial purposes, then it might be worth your time to track the owner of the image and get his permission.