#Bloggers Beware: You CAN get SUED for using Pics on your Blog…

Posted on by Chris The Story Reading Ape

Further to an update from my blog partner

Professional Editor Susan Uttendorfsky

Dun Writin’—Now Whut?

Sharing Content, Copyrights, and Permissions

54 Part 1 and 55 Part 2

also apply to using photos

See this blog post of a blogger who was sued over using a copyrighted photo,

even with a disclaimer:

By clicking on the image or link below:

image

bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-for-using-pics-on-your-blog

58 thoughts on “#Bloggers Beware: You CAN get SUED for using Pics on your Blog…”

  1. Reblogged this on Just Can't Help Writing and commented:
    Chris the Story Reading Ape posted this link; it’s important reading. For the record, the pictures I’ve begun using are from stock photo sites that state expressly that they can be used for blogs, book covers, web sites, etc. These sites use the terms “resale and distribution” in ways that I find confusing; for example, depositphotos, which I have used quite a bit, says that the regular license is fine for book covers, but then says this license is only appropriate if the photo file plays “a minor role” in the product. Since many of the book-cover designers on Mark’s List at Smashwords use sites like this, it would seem to this non-lawyer that the images are available for such use in ebooks just as in regular books.
    In any case, I have found the sites I’ve used to be easy to use and inexpensive. You can buy images for as little as $1.00. The article this post links to lists a number of free sites, including Creative Commons sites. When I checked out Wiki Commons, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the selection there; the pay (royalty-free) sites seemed to have a larger selection of what I was looking for.
    Perhaps others can share their experiences and expertise on this topic!

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  2. I’d read this before, and it’s made me paranoid to use any picture from anywhere but my own camera. I did ask about deleting those in WP media library, that I’d used on blog posts…they said it would delete it from the post, too, of course. Then the Pinterest thing…if I just have them pinned from other pinners, just to look at, is that ok? So confusing… I’m beginning to take photos myself of different things that might could be used on my blogs. The copyright warnings on most everything else are so confusing. Thanks for re-posting this.

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    • Yes it is concerning Barbara, but if there are too many cases like this, Pinterest itself will have to close, because they would be accessories to infringe copyright, even though they were not the posters themselves…
      Keep calm and avoid images with copyright watermarks, use your own where possible and carefully read the T&Cs of ‘Free to Use’ images. 🙂

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  3. A good post with some very useful information. In a past life I worked as a media buyer for advertising, so I was always having to negotiate rights for pictures and usages. That’s why 99.9% of the images on my blog are my own, with the others coming from Wikimedia Commons with attribution as required. I have a couple of stock image subscriptions for images I’ve used in my cover art, and have also had to purchase extended licenses to use those images – something self-published authors need to consider. Even if you have the stock photo subscription and pay the fee for the image, if you plan to use it in a commercial setting, such as a book cover or even a monetised blog, you may need an extended license agreement which costs extra.

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  4. Good information, Chris! I try to always use my own, just because of the confusion about the copyright meanings. It does worry me about Pinterest though, because all of those pictures are probably acquired from someone else!

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        • I try to avoid using pics that have copyright watermarks on them because I’d then be deliberately and knowingly using someone else’s work without permission.
          But it’s difficult to avoid with the likes of the cartoons I use for my Monday Funnies.
          I can only hope the cartoonists accept that they attract folks to their works, thus getting them future commissions…

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  8. I have some old post from my early blogging days that probably need looking at with regard to images. For a long time now Ive bought the license to use images from Fotalia, its just not worth the risk. Images on wikimedia are ok to use but you must credit them how you are instructed, which varies from image to image, depending on what the owner of the image has specified.

    What really concerns me here is Pinterest. I actually quite enjoy using it, but clearly ot is not really safe to do so. How can a site which is based solely on grabbing images from the net be completely safe? I assumed that repinning images already pinned would be safe, but it seems not. Im seriously considering deleting most of my boards and only pinning my own images or those taken by people I trust. Whats your view on this Chris?

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