The Danger of Using Images Online
Image credit: Nemo
How’s my writing going ? I know–that’s supposed to be the August topic. Truth, I have no idea. If you’d asked me Friday (two days and six thousand years ago), I’d have rattled off a five-hundred word progress report.
Today, after the weekend I’ve gone through, my brain is frazzled, my head is pounding, my neck hurts and the last thing I want to do is wrap my shriveled creativity around where the H**** my novel is.
Let me explain.
I started Saturday morning like I always do–reviewing email from the night before in preparation for updating my seven blogs for the week ahead. I do twenty-or-so posts in one day, schedule them for release throughout the week, and then I can devote myself to my WIP for six fays. At 7:02, I stumbled across Roni Lauren’s post about images and copyrights. and my world exploded. She unknowingly hadn’t followed the correct procedure for using someone else’s work product–an image–on a blog post, received a take-down notice from the owner and immediately complied, apologized, felt awful about it. That wasn’t good enough for the owner. He wanted compensation–a lot. And sued her.
Before you say, it’s her fault for not being more careful, or that won’t happen to me–Roni’s a published author with a robust following–here’s what she learned about ‘being careful’ (I’ve copied these from her blog):
It DOESN’T MATTER…
- if you link back to the source and list the photographer’s name
- if the picture is not full-sized [thumbnail size is okay, which I didn't know]
- if you did it innocently
- if your site is non-commercial and you made no money from the use of the photo
- if you didn’t claim the photo was yours
- if you’ve added commentary in addition to having the pic in the post
- if the picture is embedded and not saved on your server
- if you have a disclaimer on your site (something like “THIS BLOG claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to its respectful owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.”)
- if you immediately take down a pic if someone sends you a DMCA notice (you do have to take it down, but it doesn’t absolve you.)
How many of you read this list and thought, That’s what I do. Like I did. Yes, I try to be careful. I use free image websites:
- Creative Commons
- Flikr–they list their restrictions–this is a good learning tool
- Flikrcc–only creative commons images on Flikr
- Free Photo
- Morgue File–free images, but check the licenses first
- Open Clip Art
- Open Photo
- Smithsonian Wild–200,000 animal pictures!
- Stock Exchange
- Wiki Images
- This Wikipedia list
- This list of 45 sites (some repeats of the above)
…but not always. Google Images is so easy and fast, and I couldn’t put my pen to Bible and swear I never cut corners. I decided before I rest on the mantra that ‘it won’t happen to me’, I’d go through all of my three thousand-ish posts on my six blogs. Trust, but verify.
And I lost 36 hours. Which was the time I’d planned to work on this article (well, not just this article, but you understand). Most were fine. I create a lot of my own images with Photoshop and Creative Commons pieces, but I had to bring them up, check each image for attrition (I clicked to be sure it worked right). Some, I found I’d linked to a subsidiary site rather than the original and had to follow back to the beginning. Some, I’d missed the link entirely thinking the Creative Commons license would protect me (forgetting it requires a link-back). Then, I had to either find that original picture (nearly impossible) or replace it. A lot of website/individuals will give permission if you link back to them, but some want a link that takes viewers to their website. As an author who’s trying to build a brand, I understand that more than I did a couple of years ago. and in truth, what I published back in 2009 is where most of my 36 hours went.
With my last teaspoon of energy, let me share how my writing is doing: It’s fine. I’m working through my agent’s changes, love what it’s doing to my story (He sees things after six months I didn’t see after two years. How’s he do that?).
So how do you-all handle images? Do you avoid them or use your own only or use some other method? I might mention, if you’re interested, Roni got over 350 comments on her post. Those are fascinating reading. One of the commentors shared how artists can see where their images have been used on the internet:
- go to http://images.google.com/
- drag and drop your image into the search bar (sounds odd, but it opens up an image drop box)
- it populates a list of all places on the internet using that image
Amazing.
Jacqui Murray is the editor of a technology curriculum for K-sixth grade, creator of two technology training books for middle school and three ebooks on technology in education. She is the author of Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy midshipman. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, a columnist for Examiner.com, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, IMS tech expert, and a weekly contributor to Write Anything. Currently, she’s editing a thriller for her agent that should be out to publishers this summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.
Great article! I just found your site and really dig it.
As far as my images, I like to mine the Wikimedia Commons (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page). All of their images are CC, GNU, or public domain.
I particularly enjoy using Wikimedia for government propaganda posters (by the way, pictures created by government organizations, like NASA, are almost always public domain) and old art, like Van Gogh or Da Vinci. Just searching your key word along with “painting” often gets great results.
Great selection. I go there, too, though they don’t have as many options as Pixaboy or stock.xchng.