Read This, The Legal Consequences of using images which Aren't Yours
You may want to read this article I found this morning
https://www.dreamstime.com/blog/major-copyright-infringement...
I personally know at least six marketers who have been fined up to half a million dollars for copyright infringement. non of these hit the press in the States or in Europe. However, they are going on every week. The upshot is the fine will be a minimum of $25,000 and court costs.
When you use images from free sites you can still be using an image that belongs to someone else, in other words, you don't know the publisher owns the photo. ignorance is no defense in these cases. Some companies noticeably Getty images make their money not from the photos but from copyright infringement. They aggressively chase people who have knowingly to unwittingly taken their images and they prosecute in one hundred percent of cases.
The safest way is to purchase images
Recent Comments
49
Hi,
I much appreciate your blog post.
I tipped me over to decide to buy my pictures.
Until now, I used the following :
pexels
unsplash
rawpixel
Do you think these are safe to use their “free” pictures?
Because you mentioned Getty Images suing people :
I noticed that Canva will allow you to use pictures from Istock (Getty Images) if you have a Canva subscription. The same pictures for which you pay a lot more on Istock. Is this correct or suspicious?
I think Dreamstime is a great option. I considered Istock too, but with your story in mind I tend to take Dreamstime instead.
Or would Canva be the better choice?
Hey
I currently use Unsplash plus my own I am thinking if there was an issue, why would these free image sites sill exist. I like Canva and use it all the time but the free version.
Thank you.
Lula
I have a Premium Canva subscription which gives me access to Premium photos. I have downloaded up to 3 images in one session. I just wonder how strong the Canva license is in regard to those photos?
Photos for websites has always been scary. I don't get out much now due to minimal mobility so I'm very limited to taking my own photos.
Some years ago I used Stock Photos. The photos became very expensive.
I'm not sure what to do. But, thanks Catherine for raising the awareness.
i dont know but i would think that as there is a charge involved using Canva pro is probably ok
Unfortunately their was a time you could simply purchase an image cheaply without having to pay a membership fee. Since Covid hit the cost for one picture has skyrocketed. Maybe they are just taking advantage of the surge in interest created by people being bored in lockdown's around the world .
Nowadays I only use Wiki Commons for my pictures or I use my own. Jim
yes, Wikicommons is in the public domain. You can still get new deals on stock photo sites I pay less than a dollar
So what you are saying Catherine is that we should all be wary of using even the free images out there as free in this day and age is difficult to come by.
I have found that there are some reasonable offers available when purchasing images, we just need to shop around to see what is best for us individually.
Appreciate the post my friend and have an amazing evening.
There are always some great offers out there if you search for them. Will be working late tonight but you have an amazing evening
With a bit of research and time, we can all find some amazing deals that suit our needs.
I intend on having an early evening as we just got back from Spain today!
I hope you don't stay up too late working too hard!:-)
See more comments
So true! I've seen it happen often, and it doesn't make the news because it happens so very often!
I know that people have limited budgets, but if they want to use images, it's tempting to just assume a photo shown on a free site is indeed free. However that assumption can end up costing you a fortune.
Find images for a few dollars and buy the rights to use those. They may not be as perfect for your post as some of the ones shown for free, but in the long run you could be making the best investment ever.
I couldn't agree more