Who Owns That Image

byAlexEvans

11.9K followers

7 years ago

The internet is exploding with content and with the advent of social media, the explosion of individuals sharing visual content has become a modern-day phenomenon, which shows no sign of abating.

The determination of visual content would be, pictures, videos, illustrations, and vectors, like all content there has been at some point in its lifecycle a birthing it has been created by someone or as technology increases machine. Under The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the creator is granted copyright for that content. Currently, there are 171 countries out of 192 countries signed up to the convention.

The Berne Convention

In laymen's terms,

The treaty states that if copyright exists in one of these countries, then this copyright is valid in all member countries who are signatories.

So it affords some protection to the creatives who have produced the content. This content can be visual or written.The synopsis is that someone originated and owns that content. Ownership does convey certain legally enforceable rights.

With writers, there is a collective sigh when we observe someone plagiarizing content and creating authorship of that content.

For some reason, there seems to be a disconnect when it comes to visual content, I think that we have as a society become conditioned with the advent of social media to the sharing of imagery as part of our normal engagement. The majority of folks are blissfully unaware that they may be encroaching on someone else's intellectual property rights.

If you think in terms of Pinterest, for example, the volume of images shared is absolutely staggering and one of those situations where the cat is out of the bag the floodgates are well and truly open.

With visual content, we have public usage and we have commercial usage. With our endeavors here at Wealthy Affiliate we would most probably come into the category of commercial users in so much that we are creating websites, content and that we are using imagery to enhance that content, our intent is to make some financial gain by way of promoting offers.Well hopefully that is the intent.

There are two kinds of platforms when it comes to the provision of images online.

• The first is the platform that provides storage and allows for the sharing of user-generated content which is usually free to use, folks can become a member and upload photos.

• The second is the Commercial platforms who not only own visual content but also curate and manage that content on behalf of their creative suppliers. Their businesses depend on copyright and the respect for intellectual property that is how they make their money so that is why they tend to defend their position in some cases vigorously.

The separation that has evolved over time is that the majority of folks think intellectual property is free. that whole debate is massive.

• The question is how do we know who owns the copyright. We search for an image online and we do some due diligence on it and discover that has a creative commons license so we assume it is free to use.

A member here brought up a really relevant point and also pointed out some of the pitfalls and they can be expensive when using copyrighted material in the content that we are creating without obtaining permission or a license to do so.

In the beginning, we can think like oh we only have a few images it should be good to go and most probably you will be overlooked. Just like the powers that be aren't going to force kids selling lemonade at the front gate to comply with all the rules and reg's and get licenses for this and that. Should those kids start bottling it and sending it interstate and there by emerge onto the radar then the whole game changes.

We need to think down the track when you have that website humming and you are well on the way to becoming an authority in your niche and the dollars are coming in. That is the time that some images could come back to haunt you. There are law firms out there specializing in this kind of litigation and many of them work on the premise no result no pay, so for the copyright holder, it does have advantages, they have a third party protecting their position.

I hope that I am not painting a negative picture because it is not that bad. All we need to do is become aware and take steps to ensure we do not end up in strife.

There are some really good resources available that can really help us out.

Three resources to help work out if the image is under copyrighted and therefore not in the public domain.

• Google images

• Tin eye

• Picscout.

https://images.google.com/

Allows us to see where else the image is online and usually this will give some indication as to the status of the image.

Google Reverse Image Search

Using this resource your search may result in

• Similar images.

• Sites that include this image.

• Other sizes of the image you searched for

Tin Eye

Allows you to do a reverse image search and probably is my pick of the bunch you can add it as an extension in Google Chrome.

• Hover over the image

• Right click and do a search from right inside the browser.

• It will let you know other instances of that image.

• What we are wanting to avoid are images that have a score of zero they are definitely original so that would suggest that the image is definitely not in the public domain.

Or just go to the website drag and drop the image into the search bar or just insert the image URL and let the magic happen. A reverse image search can provide some really good information.

What we are wanting to avoid are images that have a score of zero they could be original and or unique it pays to be mindful, it would suggest that the image is definitely not in the public domain. So something to avoid or if you are keen approach the owner or image manager, to obtain permission to use or a licence.

So from searching we can determine the status of the image

Once you have been online for a while you will start to see images doing the rounds. The result shown is a stock image so one needs to purchase a licence to use that image.

Picscout

Back in 2011 Getty Images purchased Picscout which has developed a technology that can find copyrighted images online, that ability extends to being able to detect images that have been cropped or modified with writing etc. So the technology is getting to the level where unlicensed material can be easily detected.

Getty’s are a premium image provider and rights manager who champion the intellectual property rights of the creatives that they represent but also the images that they own and manage.

So this platform works not only for the the creators of visual content but also the folks that are wanting to use the visual content that is produced so a win- win in terms of intellectual property.

• Simple drag and drop the image upload the image or C&P the image URL.

We can use Google to search for images that come with a creative commons licence that we can modify for commercial purposes. The results will include images from platforms that provide user created and curated material as pointed out by a member here at Wealthy Affiliate sometimes we can not be sure that the contributing member of the platform is actually the owner of that material.

By doing due diligence and using the resources listed here we can build confidence that images that we are using to enhance our content are safe for us to use.

The caveat would be if in any doubt don't go there. If we research we can we can build confidence in selection and usage.

Hope this information is useful. Just reflecting.

Alex

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