What Are The Consequences Of Copyright Infringement On Social Media
If youre caught infringing on someone elses copyright for social media content, the first response will likely be a cease-and-desist letter. This is a letter from a lawyer instructing you to stop using the image and remove it from your account. You may also be asked to pay a sum that represents the lost revenue to the company that owns the image copyright.
If you remove the image promptly and offer a profound apology, it might not go any further. But if youve made money from someone elses image, or youve used it in a way they find particularly objectionable, you might find yourself hit with a lawsuit.
Or, if youre reported for multiple infringements to the social platforms, you might find yourself locked out of your account.
For instance, Instagram says, If you repeatedly post content that infringes someone elses intellectual property rights, such as copyrights or trademarks, your account may be disabled or your Page removed under Instagrams repeat infringer policy.
In short, its not worth the hassle, cost, and potential reputational risk to your business to infringe on someone elses copyright. Fortunately, there are plenty of places to find images to use on social media that wont get you in trouble.
What Is Commercial Use
As previously mentioned, some licenses allow the reuse of images for non-commercial purposes only. But non-commercial is a broader category than the name may suggest.
Obviously, the use of content for any for-profit advertising and marketing purpose is commercial. But so is creating an internal company brochure, updating a blog and creating a social media profile.
A blogger who doesnt sell ads or make any profit may be able to claim non-commercial use, but only if no type of commerce occurs or even appears on the website. If anyone is financially profiting from the content in any way, its almost certainly for commercial use.
What Photographers Need To Know About Public Domain Images And Stock Photography
In 2006, Leah Caldwell was eating at a Chipotle near the University of Denver when a photographer took her picture. When she got up to leave, the photographer asked her to sign a release form for use of the images, but she said no. Eight years later, when Caldwell went into a Chipotle in Orlando, Florida, she saw her picture on one of the restaurants walls, and subsequently in two other locations in California.
A few months ago, Caldwell sued Chipotle for over $2 billion, claiming that the company used her image in promotional material without her consent. And not only that, the company had added bottles into the photo, which Caldwell said, put a false light upon her character associated with consuming alcoholic beverages. This story makes it clear just how risky it is for businesses to use images without vetting them carefully first.
The rules around photo usage can be tricky, particularly in the era of Instagram. Today, anyone with a mobile device can take and share photos. This has created an image hungry world where businesses need to integrate authentic images into their website, social media and marketing materials. However, the proliferation of images has also made best practices around image usage more complicated.
Another consideration is whether the image contains trademarked items. Its obviously a good idea to stay away from using logos of famous brands, but what about trademarks such as Adidas’ signature three-stripes on a piece of wardrobe?
Don’t Miss: How To Change Domain On Shopify
Top Free Public Domain Images For Websites Commercial Use
Pavel Krivoruchko
In order to create the necessary impression on the audience, designers need appropriate images. Despite this, getting exclusive and high-quality images is not so easy, and even more expensive. In order to satisfy designers, there are many useful websites with images in the public domain, where designers can find quality images on any topic for free.
Free or paid stock images are popular with people and even with some professionals, such as designers. According to a survey in Denmark, 51% of Internet users used free services to access images on the Internet. Also, 8% of people surveyed used free and paid online services to get stock images. Due to the increasing use of stock photos, many websites that offer free images have become popular, and as a result, their popularity among the masses has grown over the years.
The use of free image providers as a resource is also widespread because some large players in this area charge a high price for accessing photos. According to the entrepreneur, a huge part of the photobank market is owned by professional companies such as Shutterstock and 123RF, which charge $ 20 or more for a single photo. As a result, these somewhat expensive sites are not available for most start-ups and small businesses. Now they get images for free from public image sites.
Well, now we move on to the list of the best sites of stock photos around the world.
And A Special Mention To
Heritage Type Librarys public domain images might not have the breadth and depth of RawPixels offering but what they make up for in number they deliver in quality. Download hi-resolution vintage illustration packs from , Butterflies and Fantastic Birds to Bicycles, Baseball and Skulls. What sets Heritage Types images apart from the competition is the the way each image has been carefully cut out with transparent backgrounds. Its not often the case that images are cut out so cleanly and are ready to drop right in to your creative project. Each image can be used for personal or commercial work . Visit Heritage Library Vintage Illustrations
Read Also: How Much To Buy A Domain On Wix
Other Resources Of Free Public Domain Images
Gimp-savvy Check for the links of several government websites and their image collection.
Getty Images Embed Resources They just made millions of images free for non-commercial use, provided you use their image embed code.
Wikipedia Check public domain image resource list provided by Wikipedia.
UCLA Library List of image resources includes several public domain image sources.
Harvard Library List of sites offering free public domain images.
Flickr Commons Dont forget Flickr commons.
Stop using Google to find a specific set of images or copying images from other websites or blogs, as this may result in copyright infringement. Begin your search for high-quality relevant images for your website, articles, or social media on the free public domain image websites listed above, which provide free stock photos for commercial and personal use.
Please comment below if you have any suggestions or queries.
Museum Overreach And The Chilling Effect
Sometimes museums claim copyright on photographs of works of art that are in the public domain . When institutions attach copyright notices to public domain works, the legal language, even if unenforceable in court, chills the publics use of these scans for far-ranging educational, artistic, and commercial purposes.
This 19th-century print from The Metropolitan Museum of Art is clearly labeled on their website as public domain, and they provide a link to download a high-resolution version of the image.
You May Like: How To Create My Own Domain Email Address For Free
Public Domain Videos: What Are They And How Are They Used
Filming quality videos is expensive. For studio-quality work, you need the proper lighting, cameras, editing equipment, and more. You also need time and lots of it.
Its no wonder that creatives look into using public domain video or licensing stock footage. Whether youre an art school filmmaker or are trying to create video ads for your business, video content that you dont physically have to create yourself can save you time and money.
But what exactly is public domain video, and how can you use it in your creative works? How does it compare to paid stock footage, and whats best for your project?
Works In The Public Domain And Creative Commons Licenses
Copyright law protects authors, artists, and creators so that they can benefit from and protect the tangible works they create. Copyright holders have the exclusive right to copy and distribute their works, and to publicly perform and display their works, among other things. How can you use someone else’s work without infringing on their copyrights?
First, consider using works that are in the public domain, which are materials not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright. A work may have entered the public domain because the copyright expired, the copyright owner has dedicated the work to the public domain, or it may be a work published by the U.S. Federal Government.
Although there are a number of other scenarios where a work might exist in the public domain, you can identify many public domain works because they are:
- Works published in the U.S. before 1924
- Works of the U.S. Federal Government produced by employees or officers acting in their official capacities
- Laws, including statutes and case law
- Works dedicated to the public domain by the copyright holder, often labeled with a “CC0” symbol or icon
This is a simple overview of the public domain. Determining whether a work is in the public domain can be quite complicated. If you’d like to read more about copyright, fair use, and the public domain, Stanford University Libraries has an excellent guide.
Attribution Required
Read Also: How To Set Up An Email From A Domain
Are Covers Of Public Domain Songs Copyrighted
Public domain songs are not inherently free of all copyright protections. Although the original written music is no longer protected by copyright when a song is in the public domain, there are still copyrights that apply to recordings and other issues. Covers of copyrighted songs require a DistroKid Cover License.
Google Advanced Image Search
Google Images is a good place to start your search, as long as you do it right.
Just because something appears in Google Images does not mean you can use it on social media, or anywhere else for that matter. Most of the images that appear in a Google search are copyrighted. You cant use those without permission.
Fortunately, Googles Advanced Image Search allows you to search for images with commercial and other licenses.
Before using any of these images, click through to find the license details. Some may be free to use for commercial purposes. Others may require payment, attribution, or both.
An extra handy feature of Google Advanced Image Search is the ability to search for images in the correct aspect ratio and size for social media.
Don’t Miss: How To Transfer My Domain From Wix To WordPress
Free Public Domain Images For Commercial Use
You might need some breath taking images to represent your online business, but unfortunately all those images which are of high demand and capable to draw the eye of people are asking for royalty treat. In order to use these images one have to pay a royalty fee, only then he or she could be able to use them. But now you have no need to worry about this fact, as multiple number of royalty free images for commercial useare available on various domains, whose purpose is to provide free assistance to people. You can easily use these images to make a good impression of your business. It does not mean that these free images are of inferior quality owing to no royalty charges. These are shared by passionate people on free image sharing sites, who do not interested in money in return of their services, they are doing this just for the sake of their passion.
List of Sites which offer Royalty Free Images
1. Pexels
If you are looking for images which reflects professionalism in them, pexels cannot be replaced by any other site. The quality and resolution of the pictures speaks for itself that they are clicked from professional cameras.
2. Negative Space
Uniqueness is bliss, and if you also believe in the same philosophy, negative space is designed for the people like you. Every week they will provide you some new unique pictures, this way they are helping people who love to distinguish their work from others.
3. Skitter Photo
5. IM Free
The Best Museum Collections
Ordered by the number of public domain images in each online collection.
over 3,000,000 images
Launched in February 2020, Smithsonian Open Access came late to the public domain party but was truly worth waiting for. The worlds largest museum now has the worlds largest library of public domain images. Not only is it the biggest image resource for artists its also assigned every image a Creative Commons Zero license. In other words, knock yourself out use the images however you want. No worries over attribution, selling your art or legal stuff. Theyre all yours. Not only that, every image is available at high resolutions that are perfect for printing beautiful prints. Open Access has clearly been a labour of love from the Smithsonian team. Dont miss over 2,000 interactive 3D models of everything from the Apollo 11 Command Module to a wooly mammoth skeleton. Its intuitively easy to search, filter results, browse categories and unlike many other public domain collections it also works just as well on mobiles as it does on desktops. Bravo Smithsonian, this is wonderful. Visit Smithsonian Open Access
over 2,200,000 imagesover 1,900,000 imagesover 1,400,000 imagesover 1,200,000 imagesover 1,000,000 imagesover 1,000,000 imagesover 950,000 imagesover 700,000 imagesover 550,000 imagesover 400,000 imagesover 260,000 imagesover 180,000 imagesover 150,000 imagesover 100,000 imagesover 90,000 imagesover 70,000 imagesover 50,000 imagesover 50,000 images
Also Check: Can You Have A Domain Name Without A Website
Use Public Domain Images
Public Domain images have no copyright because:
- The copyright has expired.
- The work never had copyright to begin with.
- The copyright holder released the work into the public domain.
- The image is a U.S. work published before January 1, 1924.
Copyright-free images will have the Public Domain Mark 1.0 or the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Mark.
Public domain images do not require any citation.
You can obtain public domain images on sites like Wikimedia Commons and Flickr Commons.
How To Find Free Images For Commercial Use
Every business needs images on its website, social media profiles, and marketing materials. But if youve found an image online, it could be copyrighted. And using copyrighted imagery without permission is illegal.
What is copyright exactly, though? And how can you find free images to use for commercial reasons? Heres a rundown of what you should know.
Don’t Miss: How To Access Domain Email
Key Features Of Public Domain Images
- Ability to use the image any way you want : Public domain images wont have any usage restrictions. You can sell them, edit them, redistribute them, use them in your web app, etc. The only restrictions youll have are laws and regulations that your government has. For example, lets say that for some strange reason your country doesnt allow you to use photos of butterflies or images of trees youll bear the repercussions of that violation, not the creator or provider of the work.
- No attribution required: Some free images you find on the Web will demand that you link back to the sites where you got them from. A proper public domain image wont require you to acknowledge the creator or source of the work.
- Truly free: For the sites mentioned in this article, you will be able to download public domain images from them at no cost. Note that some stock photo sites sell public domain images they either charge a monthly fee or charge you a certain amount per download but I wont be talking about those here.
What Images Can I Use Without Copyright
The Essential Guide to Using Images Legally Online
- Use Public Domain Images Public Domain images have no copyright because:
- Use Creative Commons Images.
- Use Social Media Images Only with Permission.
- Avoid Using GIFs.
Considering this, Can I legally use pictures from the Internet? Even though most people do not intend to illegally use images, intent doesnt come into play when it comes to copyright infringement. No matter if you accidentally use a protected image, youll still be expected to pay a hefty fine, and fines can run upwards of $900.
How do I know if an image is copyright free? How to check the copyright for an image?
Furthermore, How do you know if an image is public domain? How to determine a photograph is in the public domain
Also Check: How To Create Email Account In Gmail With Own Domain
How To Find Public Domain Images: 15 Valuable Websites
1. PublicDomainArchive
PublicDomainArchive is a great source of professional-level public domain images. New photos are added regularly, which keeps the sites content fresh. The website is managed by Matt Hobbs, a professional web designer and photographer.
2. Pixabay
Pixabay is easy to use: The site has a good search feature and multiple options for exploring its content. All the images on Pixabay carry the CC0 1.0 public dedication license.
3. The Public Domain Review
The Public Domain Review is an online publication dedicated to the subject of the public domain. They have over a hundred collections of public domain images, with each collection having numerous images and containing a description about the body of work.
4. Unsplash
On Unsplash, you have more than two million free images to choose from. Unsplash is a project originally created by Crew, an online marketplace for creative talent.
6. PDPics
PDPics has a collection of over a thousand public domain images organized into 18 categories, such as Animals, Food, Technology and so forth.
7. Picdrome
Picdrome is a collection of photos in the public domain. The images are licensed under CC0 1.0 and arranged in categories such as Nature and Textures and Backgrounds.
9. Pexels
Pexels is a stock website that offers free images and videos for use in your projects. The team at Pexels asks that you dont redistribute or sell the photos or portray people in the content in an offensive way.