Usage Policy
Last Updated: March 2, 2001
Images obtained from RailARC (or any of its derivatives) may be used, modified in any way, and redistributed for non-profit purposes, provided that the photographer (if listed) and/or RailARC (if no photographer is listed) is credited. Note that this license is parasitic - you may share the images with anyone, as long as the photographer and/or RailARC get credit and this usage policy (unmodified and in full) is also shared with and agreed to by the receiving party.
RailARC's primary goal is one of free, public, historical reference and preservation of railway equipment history, and any usage disputes will be arbitrated based on that premise. Most RailARC images are also available for commercial use. Please contact us and we will put you in touch with the photographer for licensing and original media.
Also, the use of automated grabbers (a.k.a. offline browsers) are strictly prohibited on any document served from http://www.railarc.org, including images. This is intended to reduce bandwidth consumption by any one individual such that everyone has fair access to the limited bandwidth. Use of automated grabbers will not be tolerated and may result in the banning of the offending IP or domain.
In short, share the images you find here, use them for your own railfan websites, make wallpaper out of them, just please give the photographer and/or RailARC a little credit (even a link would be nice) for their efforts if you're going to use the image somewhere the public can see it. And, if you're going to make money off using an image, it's only good, honest business to make sure the author/photographer gets a little bit. Those simple terms are a small price to pay for us not having to cover the images with big, ugly copyright text or degrade the images to unusable quality, right?
Let's all remember that very few of us are actually professional railfans, the rest of us just do it for fun. Most of our images will never be published, and perhaps aren't worth much commercially. The true value is in the history, the memories, and the enjoyment you and others get from looking at them. That is RailARC's goal - to allow everyone to share and benefit from the railfan community's vast base of images in an easy-to-use fashion.
If you find these images useful, we would like to hear from you. Enjoy them and feel free to let us know your opinions!
For any questions regarding image use, ownership, or copyright, please contact us at copyright@railarc.org.
Thanks!
The RailARC Support Staff