Illegal Web Photos
Read a great blog post this morning about using the photos and graphics you find on the web and realized it was worth repeating. The post was by Don Crowther. Don really knows his stuff and you can check out his original post here.
The point is simply this: You cannot download any image you find on the web and use it on your own web site, product, blog, etc. Doing so may, and usually does, violate a copyright of the person who originally created the image. That could mean legal hassles, and possibly major penalties for you.
Fortunately there are several sites where you can find good images that are OK for you to use. These images have a “Creative Commons License” which allows public use of them as long as their terms are followed. Sometimes this means you have to give credit to the author. You need to check this on each image.
I know many people use Google images or Flickr to find images. Both of those sites have images that are legal – AND illegal to use. You have to know how to find the images that are legal to use and avoid the illegal images. This Google blog post shows you how to find images that are licensed for your use on your sites.
Don’s blog post has a video showing how to find images on flickr. Be sure to also read the comments on Don’s blog as several of his readers suggested alternative sites for finding legal images. For example, I found the image on this blog post at http://www.sxc.hu .
Finally, there are limitations in using these sites. They don’t have as many images available, and they aren’t always the best quality, especially Google and Flickr, because anyone can throw an image on there. If you have a specific image you need that has to be good, like for instance a cover photo on your eBook, then you might have better luck at a site like http://www.istockphoto.com. You can find great photos there for a very reasonable price.
Please comment.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:42 am
really interesting content…thanks.
September 11th, 2010 at 8:49 am
Hi Jeff
Thanks for that
This goes some way to address a lingering myth … that if its ‘out there’ and has been indexed it is in the ‘public domain’ and therefore can be used with impunity
… a blog post in an of itself methinks
Cheers
David Shillito
September 11th, 2010 at 8:53 am
As a writer, I’ve always been sensitive to the copyright issue, and carry that over into my careful use of images. But I also don’t want to live in the year 1990. Things are changing, and I believe smart businesses do their best to adapt. So for instance, I’m releasing my novel next month, but it will also be released one chapter at a time for free on my website. There’s more than one way to monetize a cat.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:07 am
As an image creator myself, I’ve written extensively on this issue. I recall having a heated discussion with a woman who said, “Everything’s free on the Web.” When I told her it wasn’t, she became really angry with me, and didn’t like the fact that I challenged her. Finally, she asked me, “And what makes you such an authority?” I said, “I make my living from photography and image work. I also just finished writing a ten part series about stock photography, the Web and copyright.”
She was stunned. Within a few minutes she left.
Copyright is a huge problem online. The more educated people are about this problem, the better. You can read the first article in this series at: http://www.webreference.com/stock/
September 11th, 2010 at 9:14 am
Many images that are free to use – even those with a creative commons license – don’t allow images to be used on commercial web sites. So as Jeff says – read the terms very carefully. We see an image we really like because it fits the story so we tend to skip over the fine print.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:28 am
Thanks, Jeff. I “Stumbled” that one.
Nathan, good article. Is there a “Part 2″?
I think some people (did include me, though I’ve been persuaded to change my mind) think, “Hey, if millions do it, the Law’s not going to bother with lil ol me.”
But there’s an moral/ethical issue, as well as a legal one, and the Law always gets the other guy until you’re the other guy.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Two ideas:
1.Many times you can take your own photo around the home or office, or in the back yard, and have something eye-catching if not always very relevant.
For example, a picture of your dog looking sad might lead into a blog post about losing out on a “special deal”.
Sometimes “homespun” trumps “highly professional”, sometimes not.
2. If you have kids or a willing spouse, you might “outsource” the finding of a stock photo to them for free, and they might have fun contributing.
September 11th, 2010 at 9:38 am
I like Terry’s point about taking your own photos, too. Sometimes that visual you see can become useful later on. Or even inspire a blog post. That’s what happened to me with this blog post on a Stupid Marketing Mistake. http://hightechmarketing.com/blog/2010/04/14/stupid-marketing-mistake-check-it-out/
Jeff
September 11th, 2010 at 9:47 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeff Mulligan and Rick Wilson, Steve L. Vernon. Steve L. Vernon said: Illegal Web Photos: Read a great blog post this morning about using the photos and graphics you find on the web an… http://bit.ly/duv4GR [...]
September 11th, 2010 at 10:38 am
Another thing to be very careful with is getting outsourced people to create graphics for you.
The often use stock images as part of the graphics they create. Hopefully they have a license to use them.
But it goes beyond that. Suppose someone comes after you, 5 years down the road, and accuses you of using an un-licensed graphic in your images. Can you prove you have a license? Or can you prove that your outsourced artist had a license?
We have had just that thing happen to us on two occasions. Since we could no longer find the details of that original contractor, in the end we had to take our images down.
There are people out there surfing around looking not just at images, but images within images, to find copyright violations.
Be careful!
Noel
September 11th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Sometimes I think getting those pictures yourself adds more value to the blog. I certainly enjoy that. Only when I can’t get those pictures myself do I turn to sites like http://www.sxc.hu/
September 11th, 2010 at 11:02 am
A great article Jeff – Yes, we use our own photos but use Creative Commons too, and always give a link (credit) to the page where it came from; For example…
http://www.stepupfinance.com/category/blog/
Regards
SUF
September 11th, 2010 at 11:06 am
Noel has a great point as well. And as you become more successful and get a bigger following, you also become a bigger target. Can’t stick your head in the sand on these types of images.
September 11th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hey Terry,
There are more sections to the story. There isn’t a directory so here are all the articles so if you add stock2, stock3, etc. to each URL, you’ll find all the articles.
September 11th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
Whoops! Glitch in my post.
When you create images, it’s good to give them a distinctive name, like nscos003.jpg That way, you can do a targeted search and see if anyone has ripped off your work. In one case, someone stole around 50 images from one of my sites and turned them into avatars for his site, thinking that would be OK (it wasn’t) and he had to remove the page.
September 11th, 2010 at 1:52 pm
Thank you for this information. I am always looking for quality pictures I can use and this information is very helpful.
September 11th, 2010 at 5:20 pm
Great information of use of illegal images..
September 11th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
Before I read your article I thought all pics on the web were public domain.
September 11th, 2010 at 7:27 pm
How about sites that offer free clipart. Are those illegal?
September 11th, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Jeff, I catch people using my images all of the time just because it was on Google images.
This is what I did. I started putting a copyright on all pictures. The copyright within the pictures has slowed down the free usage.
The advantage is I am getting visits that I otherwise would not have gotten.
This is a good rule of thumb, if a picture is not yours it is copyrighted. The ART belongs to someone and it is copyrighted by someone unless stated differently.
I have seen where a picture was placed under the “Creative Commons License” and it was an illegal copy. I like to get a writen “Right To Use Contract” when using images that I did not create.
This is a trick I use sometimes to get the REAL name of the photo. I do a search on Google looking for matches of what I see in a photo that I want to use. Many times I can find similar pictures by describing what I saw in the photo into the Google images search. Most of the time the image will link to the true owners web site.
September 12th, 2010 at 3:03 am
Preaching to the choir here, Jeff. Been saying the same thing for years. For everyone that learns it’s illegal to use other people’s intellectual property without permission, it seems like ten newbies come online that think the Internet is a big free for all.
Thanks for posting the reminder. If enough of us keep telling it like it is, people will keep learning. Share the link folks!
September 12th, 2010 at 3:23 am
I love the stealth tactics Rom uses to track down copyrighted photos.
Great reminder Jeff.
Cheers
Chris
September 12th, 2010 at 8:42 am
Thanks for bringing ths issue to my attention.
Sincerely: Linda.
September 12th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Hi Jeff, and thanks for the enlightenment on this issue. Although I have no problems using images as an affiliate, however, I should know and avoid using those that are illegal in nature. Good reminder.
Thanks again,
Reinaldo
September 12th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
Hey Jeff: As a lONG time cbmall owner Thanks for the great posts. Where do you have a facebook page to become friends?
Mark
September 12th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
I remember right-clicking images of similar products to use as my photo on an ebay listing way back when, but that was before I knew better. Thanks for the article.
September 12th, 2010 at 7:26 pm
Thank you for this information. my mane is muller jeanfrancois
September 13th, 2010 at 4:20 pm
Check out SuperStamps for great royalty free images you can use on your site for much less cost than for example istockphoto and similar.
SuperStamps:
http://www.softwarecasa.com/superstamps.html
Cheers,
Peter
September 13th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
When I first joined the National Association of Photoshop Professionals – I found the fullest rooms at their conferences would be the copyright seminars. How to do it. How to chase violators. Artists protecting their art. Noel’s great comment about being aware of where your contractor got the art has a flipside – as a designer, determining the source of materials provided by a client and educating them if they are unsure. Just because it is out there doesn’t mean it isn’t protected. But often people think that is the case. Great post to clarify for people, Jeff!
September 14th, 2010 at 9:17 am
I take my own and have no problems
September 14th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
To be safe i just use the Apture plugin which finds legally safe pics, videos, pdfs, and more to use. And the neat thing is that it does all this from within your WP post editor
September 15th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Excellent article Jeff!
Copyright issues often raise their ugly head & I try to always respect others’ artistic rights to their work, be it in music, art, photos & graphics, or online articles. I enjoy taking my own photos to use for appropriate subjects or sites, but have also used istockphoto & bigstockphoto.
Terry, Rom & Caleb all have great ideas too!
Cheers, Mel
September 17th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Nice topics covered but too long. 9 page-blogs, wow!. This good for those who have time to read and profits from them.
Great job!
Much to learn.
Reinaldo : )
September 23rd, 2010 at 10:54 am
Good Article. Very Information.
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:19 am
I don’t use photos on my website. Only clipart. I hope they are not copyright.
October 1st, 2010 at 2:37 pm
[...] it without knowing that when you don’t have permission to do so, you are doing so illegally. Here is a link to his post, which has links to How to find free (and legal) pictures online by Don Crowther, a social media [...]
October 6th, 2010 at 8:35 am
The same copyright laws apply to clip art. You can’t legally take something you find on the web and use it without regard for copyright. However, when you buy a set of clip art from a typical vendor they include a license to use pieces of its art on the web.
Phil
October 6th, 2010 at 11:37 am
thanks for sharing!
October 26th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
Jeff, Great blog that you have here, it was recommended by a fellow blogger because I had asked him if he knew of some good sites where I could get some photos to put on my post. I had mentioned that I wasn’t sure where to get some good ones, as I had heard of the regulars but wanted some new up to date pics. Very glad that I got a chance to read your post, great info that you offer all of us. jj
October 29th, 2010 at 11:50 am
What if someone submits an illegal photo. Is the webmaster liable?
November 18th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Yeah if my website offer photo upload and someone uploads an illegal photo.. Am I liable?
November 18th, 2010 at 3:53 pm
And I thought everything on the internet is public use. Very interesting.
July 23rd, 2011 at 8:12 pm
What if you purchased the website and you are unaware there are illegal photos on your site?