How to Legally Use Images Online

I’ll admit it: I hate working with restrictions when writing and publishing blog posts. I want to write whatever I think will be most useful or interesting to the reader. And if I come across gorgeous images that will make the post absolutely light up? I want to include those without having to think twice about where they came from.

But you know what I hate more than restrictions? Reading a letter that declares I’m being sued for copyright infringement due to my careless copying and pasting. Here in America images, like all creative works, are protected by US copyright law. Publish the wrong photo on your blog and you might have the pleasure of opening a sternly worded cease and desist letter. Or worse.

Copyright holders are not obligated to warn you before they take the matter to civil court.

And this isn’t an irrational fear. Just a few months ago major publisher Elite Daily was slapped with a lawsuit by a photojournalist for using his pictures without permission.

In this post, I’m going to teach you how to you can find and publish legally compliant images using the following methods:

1) Snapping your own photos
2) Using public domain images
3) Properly attributing creative commons works
4) Taking advantage of the concept of “Fair Use”
5) Purchasing a license for stock photos

As well as the model release, and when it’s needed.

Caveat: I’m not a lawyer, and the positions in this post are my own and based on my personal research and experience. If you want actual legal advice, I’d get a few tips from someone with an actual law degree.

Method 1: Take Your Own

Why even get images elsewhere? If you can find a relevant subject around your office, just snap your own photos. Since they’ll be completely original, your readers won’t be able to see them anywhere else, which isn’t the case with public domain or stock photos.

Obviously it would be ideal if you could use a pro-style DSLR when taking photos. But thanks to brilliant hardware engineers, you don’t need top quality equipment to bring out your inner Annie Leibovitz.

The quality of smart phone cameras has improved incredibly in the past decade. If you have an iPhone 6 or a Samsung Galaxy S6 in your pocket, you already own something on par with stand-alone point-and-shoot cameras.

Just look at this gorgeous photo of the Golden Gate Bridge taken by an iPhone:

In fact, the typical barrier to getting quality images this way isn’t the equipment, it’s the technical skill of the person taking the photographs. Fortunately, if you bone up on the basics of lighting, framing, and other principles of photography you can get slick photos from your phone easily.

But wait, when you take a photo with your camera for your blog, and you work for a company, do you or your employer own the copyright? I’m glad you asked.

The photos you take as part of your job, like just all the works you produce in your job, are works made for hire. That means even though you actually did the photographing, the company you work for owns the copyright unless you have explicitly agreed to maintain the copyright of your works.

Method 2: Public Domain

Images in the public domain have been unshackled from copyright. They are owned by nobody. So you can publish them, change them, sell prints of them, or do anything you want with them.

What is or is not public domain is somewhat complicated. People can (and have) written entire books on the subject.

Me learning how to avoid lawyers

There are some instances where the creator of an image chooses to release it into the public domain. But the most common sources of copyrighted images are old images and images produced by the government.

By “old” I just mean the copyright term has expired. You can’t just claim copyright on intellectual property forever (sorry, descendants of Shakespeare.) For example, in the United States, any work published before 1923 is not protected by copyright. Photos published between 1923 and 1977 without a copyright notice are also in the public domain.

Source:http://www.searchenginejournal.com/legally-use-images-online/140560/