MArcomage

So we changed the image from a copyrighted Dungeons and Dragons Forgotten Realms PC game box art to the copyrighted Everquest PC MMO game box art. This is not an improvement, in my opinion.

Agreed. It's a shame that:

A) We don't really have any artists in the game community who can come up with original card artwork.

B) Finding appropriately licensed images for this kind of thing can be really hard. Google image search has an option to filter by usage rights, but it doesn't return a lot of artwork that would be appropriate for card art when you search for typical swords-and-sorcery type stuff.

I think I didn't get this picture from google search, but rather site which offers free pictures,but anyway I'll try to find a replacement.

Couldn't we just add a copyright note somewhere about artwork, or maybe artist name like it's being done on MtG cards I think?

Well, we could, but I wonder if it would somehow change the situation.

Damn! I don't know :)

We could message the respective companies and ask them permission to use their pictures for a non-profit game with credits to them for the pictures. I think most would agree to the free advertising :P

This is quite a hairy issue, but my understanding is that just giving attribution isn't always enough. For example, I can't write a book called "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone part 2", even if I explicitly say that it's based on the work of J.K. Rowling.

As for trying to get permission from the copyright owners, I don't think this would be very successful. For example, a huge corporation like Sony Online Entertainment (or Blizzard-Activision) isn't likely going to relinquish its rights over an image at the request of a little site like ours.

I think we have a pretty strong case in saying that the image use on this site basically falls under Fair Use, but like DPsycho, I'd feel more comfortable if we were using images that are under a permissive license.