Copyright on Images
September 15th, 2009 | 
Author: You may have noticed that I have changed the images at the top of this page. These were declared to be licenced for use by me, as the purchaser, on any web site I build. However, there is a storm raging on the FSB Forum as many web designers have used photos they thought were free to use. They have been sent invoices for Thousands of Pounds by Photo Libraries such as Getty Imaging and Corbis. The photos were not copyright free. Nothing on the web is free to use and someone somewhere owns the copyright.
Never ever use any images you find on the web. Some photographers place images with the big boys. They might also place them on Flickr or a low-cost library. You use it legitimately, you think, and then find Getty Images on your back. Make sure you know who owns the copyright and get permission before you use anything. So my legal to use photos have gone – just in case – and been replaced by one I took on my own camera.
If you engage a third party to build a web site for your business, or buy an off-the-shelf template, can you be 100% satisfied that the images used in the design are being used legally? Many templates are designed in USA, India or Russia using images obtained from who knows where. If you can’t get the photos you need, get someone to take them or buy them from reputable sources with the correct licence. Otherwise you could end up with that dreaded invoice.
Posted in Business Alerts
That’s a great piece of advice. The copyright issue is so important and, while you can publish something online in good faith, in reality the only protection is to use your own pictures. If you do use photos from a “free download” site, I’d always recommend making a note of where you found the picture and a snapshot or pdf of the page on the day you do the download. I guess that photographers starting an online business will publish pictures and then forget about the rights they assigned to that picture at the time.
M
Good advice and a sensible approach by taking your own photos, I am a photographer (but also purchase images for clients), unlike a lot of my colleagues I have no problem with people especially SME’s taking their own images or indeed using “Micro-Stock”.
I am not from the hang them all group regarding IP infringment, each case is different, I am more from “there but for the grace etc”. The internet and before that the BB’s was a free for all for a long time, with masses of missinformation being given out, putting the genie back into the bottle is going to be difficult. We all received free image CD’s some have been lucky and did not actually use them, some not so carefull, we (SME’s) need to help each other, if in doubt ask for advice people are usually more friendly than we think. Enjoy taking your own photos and using them, apart from anything else its very satisfying