How to find and use Images and not get sued

This is the 3rd in the series of

20 Secret Blogging Tips in 20 Days!

There’s no rhyme or reason to the order. Check out the bottom of this post to see the rest.

I’ve written extensively about finding images for your wordpress blog posts before. I even shared a great plugin called Photodropper.

Just in case… Let me say this one more time

When it comes to the finding the images there are generally three options – using your own, using ‘stock’ images, or searching the internet. Before I go on let me first say…

YOU CANNOT USE IMAGES YOU FIND ON THE INTERNET

Wait. Didin’t you just say that one of my options was searching the internet?

Yeah I did. What I mean by that is that every image on the internet is Copyright implied. That means that you can be sued for every image you ‘stole’ from the internet. They don’t need to have a Copyright notice at the bottom of their site. They don’t have to have a watermark over it. Just by taking the picture and uploading it – they have Copyright protection and can seek monetary damages for anyone they find using it.

UNLESS

Unless you have permission from the picture owner. If you find a picture you like you can track down the owner and ask them if it’s ok to use. And you know what Sweet Brown would say … Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That!

That’s why there’s workarounds. A photographer can use Creative Commons to give specific permission to others to use their pictures in specific ways. That’s one way. Both are somewhat hidden but you can search Flickr or even Google for images with that kind of license.

And then there’s sites like MorgueFile which automatically give you permission. Just search for an image using keywords and you might find what you need.

Here’s a new one for you. It’s called UnSplash and it promises 10 new photos every 10 days. Best part about that – you don’t have to search, they are delivered right to your email inbox.

That’s really what the home page looks like! Kind of UnSplashy. There’s no search, no keywords, just 10 pictures a subscribe link and that’s it. See that picture of the guy, his phone and laptop above? That’s not me – that came from UnSplash.

Go add some images to your posts and when you do, do so legally!
🙂

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Mike Mueller

VP of Happiness at AreWeConnected.com

A former professional hand model, Mike builds Custom WordPress Websites that rock!

He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, bought a cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and now,a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.

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