John Miedema

Many people are interested in using book covers images on their website, but are unsure about the legal aspect. One of the most popular posts on this blog is Book Cover Images and Copyright: What’s the Law? I am not a lawyer, but in that post, I make the case that using a thumbnail sidesteps all of the legal issues. Using a thumbnail is like using a quote for research purposes. For more on that subject, read that post, along with its link to the excellent article at the LibraryLaw blog.

If you accept that argument, the next natural question is about the size of a thumbnail. Wikipedia’s definition of thumbnail suggests some dimensions used by others, with 250 pixels usually being the longest dimension. That’s a start, but it should be noted that a pixel just means the smallest unit of graphical information in a context, and it depends on the device. There is no absolute standard. What if the original is 250 pixels? My sense is that this question is still open. What is your knowledge or opinion on the definition of a thumbnail?

In an earlier release of OpenBook, I pulled out the ability to display large images from Open Library. At the time I felt this prevented any possibility of copyright infringement, e.g., if someone uploaded a cover image that was copyright protected. I now feel that policy is too restrictive. Publishers are more than happy to donate cover images to Open Library, thus validating their reuse in those cases. Where exceptional circumstances exist, e.g., images owned by the illustrator, I leave it to the discretion of the OpenBook user. As demonstrated in this post, when OpenBook2 is released, you will be able to show full cover images. Looks nice, doesn’t it? Any opinions on the matter?