V is for Verifying Copyright

It's the A-Z Challenge and I'm talking about blogging tips. It's no secret that blog posts look better with pictures. They break up the words, leaving your readers feeling a little less overwhelmed with information. But if you're a new blogger, be wary.

You can get sued for using the wrong pictures.



It happened to a popular author/blogger. Never Google an image and post it on your blog. It could cost you a lot of money and time in court. Seriously.

So how do you get pictures that are safe?

I mostly use this free stock photo website. But there are a few other sources for pictures that are what's called "creative commons" meaning pictures that anyone can use.

1. Clipart in Word

2. Wikipedia Commons

3. Flicker Commons

4. Wana commons

With any other picture you have to verify the copyright with owner of the picture. Better safe than sorry!

Comments

Alex J. Cavanaugh said…
The photos I post are either my own or ones like movie posters. I'm sure those guys don't mind the free advertising.
April 25, 2013 at 6:29 AM
Unknown said…
I remember a little over a year ago, when I first started my current blog, there was a case flying around on blog posts about a woman who was going through a bothersome and expensive settlement over using a photo she pulled from the internet. Fortunately, she was kind enough to share her story and caution with other bloggers. I immediately took off any pictures I had borrowed and now, almost exclusively, use my own photos or those I can find on microsoft clipart (and always credit that source if I do).

This same thing crops up with Pinterest from time to time-- it's a veritable glut of ripping pictures off the internet. It's been my main hesitancy of jumping on that bandwagon until a clear call is made about it.
April 25, 2013 at 9:47 AM
ilima said…
My husband has a shutterstock account that I infiltrate quite often. :)
April 25, 2013 at 10:02 AM
Rena said…
Like Julie, I haven't joined pinterest because of the legal connotations. I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to copyrighted stuff.
April 25, 2013 at 10:16 AM
John Wiswell said…
The Library of Congress site is handy for things like this. And while I Google-surf for images, I also e-mail the artists for permission. Most recently I got a digital proof of a monolophosaurus painting out of the deal. Most are very friendly!

John at The Bathroom Monologues
April 25, 2013 at 10:19 AM
Mark said…
Yikes, I better fix that. What should I do with older pics on previous posts? Do I need to remove those too?
April 25, 2013 at 11:09 AM
Carrie-Anne said…
Now I use my own pictures and stuff from free sites. At my old Angelfire site, I found pictures on all sorts of sites, or took pictures in books and then cropped the pictures to use them on my site, or for Find a Grave memorials I created.
April 25, 2013 at 11:33 AM
Sheena-kay Graham said…
I scrubbed my blog of copyrighted images last year. Can't afford a law suit, ever.
April 25, 2013 at 12:45 PM
Cindy R. Wilson said…
This is a good topic. I use Flicker commons most of the time but no matter where I get my picture, I make sure it's okay as long as I attribute it to the photographer. I have a blogger friend that was getting sued for using pictures and it was a big and frustrating ordeal. Better to be safe than sorry, I agree!
April 25, 2013 at 2:03 PM
S.P. Bowers said…
I generally only use photos I've taken. Which makes my blog low on pictures but I don't want any problems.
April 25, 2013 at 6:04 PM
J E Fritz said…
Yeah, it's definitely something to be careful of. It's easy to think that if a picture is online, there's no reason not to use it. Easy and quite wrong.
April 25, 2013 at 8:47 PM
Unknown said…
Good reason to combine photography and writing love ^_~
April 26, 2013 at 2:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Really important subject, thanks for sharing - will check out all my old blogposts and make sure they're up to scratch!
April 30, 2013 at 12:21 AM
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