yes, duly noted Rich!

Don't scare me Rich, I have been using pixabay for past 3 years, have been saving screenshots of the license though!

I'm afraid their licence is worthless. If you read the T&Cs; you'll see that you agree to indemnify Pixabay in the event that any of their images you use are not copyright free!!

Pixabay and similar sites obviously cannot guarantee their images because they make no checks on who uploads images to their servers. There's nothing to stop me hopping over to http://vogue.com, right clicking half-a-dozen images and uploading them to Pixabay under the name of Mickey Mouse. However, under their terms, not only are you liable for the misuse even though you downloaded them from Pixabay but you agree to pay any costs or damages awarded against them too.

I strongly recommend using a stock library that offers indemnity, such as Stock Unlimited http://www.stockunlimited.com who offer up to $25,000 per image in the event of any dispute. You can download a 1000+ images from them for $9 secure in the knowledge that they have verified the identity of those who upload to their servers, which is why they can afford to offer compensation in the event of any dispute.

http://blog.webcopyplus.com/2011/02/14/legal-lesson-learned-copywriter-pays-4000-for-10-photo/

I understand what you just said, but the thing is there has been a lot of tutorials in WA that suggests pixabay so a lot of guys like me having been using those images on our site, you were probably the best person around here to advise on the image thing and in your absence, I have done a mistake of using those images without thinking twice and I don't even have a count of how much images I have used..man this is worrying me now..I will be subscribing with stock unlimited, but I have no idea what to do about what's already done.

Unfortunately this is an issue, new members create training without understanding all the implications of what they're recommending. You can always replace your images with licenced ones if you want to be risk free.

If you follow my ancient training here OK, this is. DISGUSTING ! Just. Ugh. you can grab 30 images for free from Bigstock. Then when you cancel, you should be able to grab 150 for c. 30¢ each. OK, be a "sheeplewussy", but don't join the circus!! Adobe are offering 10 free images at www.stock.adobe.com for new signups.

Dreamtimes http://www.dreamstime.com are offering 5 images for $1.

etc. etc.

Well that is going to be a very hard task because I have 350+ posts on my site and each post contains more than 3 images..I will do it gradually, better be late then never. But I can't do anything about the social shares, but they won't cause any problems it seems once I change the images on my site.

I remember that Big stock offer Rich, you know what I actually used two credit cards that time..lol...

I am done with free images even if it is safe, I guess I will go with stock unlimited, Just want to be carefree and unlike earlier, now I have money earned from this work so I don't really mind paying money for images that will not put me into trouble in future especially as I will be needing a lot of them ahead.

But I think WA needs a tutorial from you especially as a warning for people using images from random websites.. maybe a wake up call for everyone like me who are doing it even after having a money making blog just because they have got into that habit of getting it for free.

The biggest risk isn't actually being asked to pay compensation, but that a copyright holder will file DMCAs against your site. I file an average of one a fortnight, and I got my first death threat last summer, from the owner of a site that got entirely deindexed after I filed a DMCA against it!! I think that's the worst possible outcome, losing years of hard earned rankings over an image.

Alright, I don't know about others, but that's enough for me to buy images and I am going to replace all of them within next two months. Rich, never was aware of such things happening around thanks a ton man.

Here's Pixabay forum where they have answered the questions that they do check images in every possible way:-

https://pixabay.com/en/forum/questions-about-pixabay-11/just-being-extra-careful-tell-me-again-that-these-401/

I don't know the technicalities but I have not seen much images there that seems to be uploaded randomly. Have you found any case where someone uploaded an image by stealing it from other sites something like that?.. I just want to make sure if it is okay to keep the images that I have already used..is there any technical way of doing this?

The case you provided was of when someone found an image via Google search, I have not found any such cases that indicates sites like this especially Pixabay have got someone into trouble.

In the end, it's up to you to decide whether or not you're willing to accept the risk.

I'm aware of at least one website owner who has had a copyright infringement notice filed against them after using an image they downloaded from Pixabay. They also frequently receive takedown notices but refuse to alert users who have already downloaded those images that they now know those images infringe another persons copyright, ie. https://lumendatabase.org/notices/13209655#

Pixabay admit in their comments on that forum link that you posted that they make no checks on the identity of the people uploading images to their servers nor do they guarantee they are the copyright holder and have the right to label the images free to use. They also rarely have signed model releases when an identifiable person is shown in an image.

If Pixabay were confident there was no risk of copyright infringement, they'd be willing to offer indemnity as for example Stock Unlimited do, to the sum of $25,000 per image in their case.

However, as you can see in their T&Cs; not only do Pixabay explicitly state that they don't offer any guarantees whatsoever about non-infringement, but in the event there is a claim, not only are you liable for your own infringement and your legal costs, you are agreeing to pay Pixabay's damages and costs as well.

However, if you're comfortable with taking the risk, then by all means go ahead, I'm simply pointing out from experience that it's not risk free and every member should be aware of this, so they can make an informed decision.

In my case, I'd never risk years of my work over an image, but that's just me!

Yeah I can see what you are trying to say, but as said earlier I am pretty much willing to use paid images on my site it is just that going back and changing pics of so many posts that worries me, not only it is a lot of work to do which will take at least 2-3 months but also I am afraid if doing that will effect my ranking because images and also the alt texts gets ranked..

This is very helpful Rich, thanks. I was in the process of down loading images from a free image website. I will use stockunlimited

Thank you for this information. I just checked out stock unlimited, and they have a ton of images. I am going to use this site. I have heard you rant about image and have decided to take this seriously. I have looked at other sites that charge for imagees and they are either super expensive, or they just don't have many good images. I am really surprised, $39/year, or as you said, $9/month. It will be nice to have peace of mind when using images.

Steve

I am using stockunlimited now and it is awesome :)

thanks so much Sir :)

You're welcome Sir

No problem ur welcome

:D thanks for the comment mate

Its a great resource yes AND I think I found anoher one Steve called photobin I'll have to do some research!

read again!!!