That Photo You Found On the Internet Could Cost You

Yesterday I got a call from a client saying they had gotten a letter from Getty Images requesting a payment of $1,000. Turns out that more than year ago they had pulled an image from the Internet to use on their blog, and the image just so happened to be owned by Getty. They just didn?t realize there could be copyright issues with the image.

Quick rule of thumb: images on the Internet are not free. There?s a good chance that when you do a Google image search for something, some one owns the rights to that image, whether they know it or not. And services like Getty and other stock photo services are rather vigilant about tracking down violators, even if they are in violation merely on ignorance.

Let?s face it, you could just go on and use whatever you want from the Internet in hopes that you never get caught. Or you could ignore the letter asking for money. But in the end, how many small businesses have $1,000 in funny money they can just throw around like that. Most businesses and nonprofits I work with have very tight budgets, and most of their money is allocated well in advance.

I?ve heard several people say something along the lines of:

If it?s on the Internet, you can use it for free.

Uhhhh, not true.

If images on the Internet aren?t free, what?s a blogger to do? I tell people to make sure they use at least one image in every blog post for a variety of reasons. So where do I find images to make sure I?m not going to get myself in trouble?

Here are a few options you can use:

1)Take your own pictures ? A lot of this might depend on how much time you have, as well as access to the thing you need an image of. It can also be a function of the quality of your digital camera, but smartphone and digital camera software is such that you can easily use most of your own photos online without worrying about the quality. Obviously when I talk about my dog I?m including my own photos, and I also took my own photo to illustrate my Friday Blogging Experiment post from last week because it was the subject of the post.

2) Ask permission ? I mainly only use this when I know the person who took the photo, but i you see a photo you really like, try asking the source for permission to use it. I?ll usually also give them credit for the photo as well as link to their site in order to acknowledge them.

3) Use Creative Commons licensed photos ? This is by far the easiest and what I do most often. Creative Commons (which has a variety of different types of licenses) means that someone has shared the photo online and is allowing you to use their work under certain criteria. Usually it?s just a matter of giving them credit as well as linking back to their site. Just make sure you make yourself familiar with the different types of CC licenses so that you are using them properly.

OK, so now you want to find Creative Commons licensed photos. How the heck do you do that? Simple. Here are a few options:

1) Zemanta browser plugin ? I use this more often than not, but it seems to be rather limited. What I like about it is that it searches for images as I type the blog post, based on the text of my post. But since I use a lot of the same keywords and phrases in my posts, I often get the same images suggested to me over and over again. I like the images in my posts to be unique to each post.

2) Advanced Image Search -?Don?t just use Google Image search to find the picture you want. Instead, use the Advanced Search feature and use the ?usage rights? drop down menu feature to select the type of use you are looking for. Yahoo image search has a similar feature to help filter the search for you.

3) Creative Commons Search ? Search directly within the Creative Commons site. Not only will you have access to images, but audio and video and other ?usable content, as well.

4) Worpress Plugins ? I?ve never used any of these, but there is a WordPress plugin for just about everything you could ever need, and free photos is no exception. Among the plugins you can install on your WordPress site are?PhotoDropper, Flickr ? Pick a Picture, and quite a few others. I can?t vouch for how well they work, but feel free to try them out and see which might work best for you.

5) Flickr ? I?ve saved this for last even though you might want to use it as your top source. Why? Because there?s a good chance that regardless of which of the previous four methods you use, you?ll end up on Flickr. The photo hosting and sharing service seems to be the number one source of Creative Commons photos, so you might just start there.

One caveat ? the images for which you are searching will only be as good as how people have indexed and labeled the photos. For instance, the image I used for this post was found through a CC License search on Flickr. What you probably don?t know is that the image was found by using the search term ?silly squirrel.? Clearly, that is not a squirrel in the photo. So plug away and don?t get frustrated. Some times you?ll need to dig deep to find just the right photo.

So remember: just because it?s on the Internet, doesn?t mean it?s free. Check your sources carefully, and make sure you won?t get a surprise letter in the mail down the road asking you for money.

Where do you go to find photos for your website and blog? What other tools have you used to look for free images?

?Photo: Creative Commons?License Some rights reserved by Willie Lunchmeat

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Tagged as: Creative Commons, Creative Commons license, flickr, Getty Images, Google Image, Stock photography, Yahoo! Image Search, Zemanta

Source: http://inklingmedia.net/2013/03/19/that-photo-you-found-on-the-internet-could-cost-you/

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