Photo Policy

401DutchDivas is a non-profit volunteer website that highlights Dutch singers and their operas, both past and present. The portraits of post-war singers were created in collaboration with the singers themselves or their relatives. The biographies serve solely to promote the singers. No commercial interest is served. This falls under the globally accepted 'fair use' principle, which also governs Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Recently, aggressive copyright groups have become active, placing bizarre claims on postage-stamp-sized photos, "tracking" them down using obscure dragnet techniques and threatening draconian fines if they are not "immediately removed." For us, it's very simple: if a photographer or a relative thinks we're not allowed to use photo X or Y, we remove it. However, this aggressive approach is not without consequences: in the post-war category, we have now removed dozens of biographies of Dutch singers as a precaution. Oh yes... the accompanying illustration is my own creation.