Hello, me and my friends are going to make a website about tv shows. So I have some questions to people who know better about IP rights.

I know I can use screens from an episode in a review for example, as using my right to make quotes.

But how about website looks? For example, I'd like to write an article about White Collar characters. Can I use tv show photos freely? Can I make a banner (ad) using photos of these characters? Title bars with them? For free?

If tv station releases some photos on their facebook as "promotional photos" , can I use them freely, edit them?

Thanks for your help.

To get absolutely sure, I would give you the advice to ask an lawyer and/or get in contact with the IP Holder.

Usualy the companies are fine as long you don't make money with it and you don't use too much of the stuff. But it is always the best to get a written permission from them to get sure.

Yeah GOG is well known for its vast community of experienced, well informed lawyers.

But asking for permission for each show we are going to write about will be pain in the ass...

And making money on it. I am afraid that even including google ad sense on website would be counted as making money. And you know, host services are not free, so we will need to add some ads eventually...yes it is. I'd like to get some intel from cjgreen or SimonG in particular! ;p

someone can get into trouble if he says to you... "yeah, you can use whatever you like" (This is not my opinion, as I am no lawyer).

Better spend some money on a real lawyer (should not cost more than 1 hour of his payment rate), when he tells you, that you can do whatever you planned you are fine to go for it. It the IP Holder puts up an case on you because of it. It is the lawyers responsibility who told you that you are free to do it.

Ubivis, true. We should proably do that, but in the meantime, be fine to comment!

I'd appreceiate some overview, how it may look like. Maybe some goggers have experience in making websites about variety of stuff and they could share some info with me, how they dealt with it.

In the EU: Kill everyone who was involved with the show and wait 70 years. ;-) [Don't do that, it was a black joke!]
Or alternatively contact them and get their permission. The latter is what I do in those rare cases.

In the US you could have Fair Use, where you can use anything in low resolution if you can prove you need to use it.

Try researching fair use laws. I doubt most sites seek permission for every little item they cover as that would be far too time consuming. At the very least, provide information pertaining to ownership as well as a means for IP owners to request removal of content if they feel there are legal issues.

Thanks for the tip. In Poland we also have fair use, but as the name states, it's only for USE, not for wide-spreading. And when you use it on a website, you are spreading this photo, etc.
But from first looks it sesms that US law grants free use for commentary also. It's a good starting point.

It's also a good tip to make a disclaimer about it.

There are multiple websites about movies, shows, etc and I highly doubt they ask for permission every time..

It differs from country to country. Like, in the US, you can post a full-game Let's Play on Youtube and it's considered to be fair use. In other places? No clue. Mostly, though, still images and the like are fine, here in the US at least.

The website will be host on US located servers, most probably.

why don't you just take a look at similar websites and see how they do things?

I looked into something similar for educational use, and the problem with Fair Use is that it can not be established if it is fair or not until you have been sued and gone through a court procedure...

I do remember using promotional material usually do fall under fair use, but you can't alter or edit it. The rest is based on extend of use and how it is used, some claim a 10% rule, but this is rule of thumb, not legal. It also changes depending on how it is used, for example it can be easier to justify fair use if for example it is used in reviews. The one thing we did find, is that there is no hard and clear rules, just some guidelines that varies depending who you talk to. Best advice is to talk to a lawyer and establish a counter-claim even before you have been sued, which allows a review of the material you are using - if it makes any sense...

But we will need to edit them / cut / crop / add text on them / alter colours to fit website's layout, for example.

We will use the photos to make our articles / commentaries more attractive to the readers, in reviews as a quotation, for example.

Cropping, re-sizing and so on should be fair as you do not actually alter the content of the picture. You might get into problems if you want to do something that alters the content, and I think changing colours may fall into this category, again it depends on how the other part will see it as an infringement or not.