Can I use Images from the internet

Modern people have to dig into a huge number of pictures, videos, texts, etc. Especially if you are a blogger or even a student. And, of course, in a rush to publish your work as soon as possible, we rarely think about the existence of legitimate rules for the use of information that we receive through the network. After all, all this information is the fruit of human intelligence, creativity, and the Internet is also subject to the general rules of copyright. For example, in the United States, cases of copyright infringement are investigated by such a serious organization as the FBI, even if they are not connected with material damage.

What is a photo according to a lawyer?

Any photo is someone’s work, someone’s property and in fact is an object of copyright. Each photo or picture was taken, according to the law, guarantees the author that others can not use the image for their own purposes. Of course, there are exceptions, but as a rule, the photographer always owns the copyright. Of course, if you just saved the picture, this is one story, but if you use the image for commercial purposes, then here comes into play such a thing as copyright.

But what if there are no pictures of your own, and Google pictures show exactly what you need. In general, you can use pictures from the Internet, but you need to follow some instructions, and everything will be fine.

Can I use images from the internet legally?

You can, but read more. In order to protect yourself from litigation and fraud, you can just buy a picture, but the cost of this can vary from $ 1 to $ 15.00 and in some cases even higher.

Nowadays there are a huge number of commercial websites with photos, where for a fee you can download any image for every taste. This will allow you to use these pictures for business purposes safely.

Here are a few sites that provide licenses for downloading materials online on behalf of photographers, designers, illustrators, etc. Here are some of them:

• IStock Photos
• Shutterstock
• Adobe Stock
• Bigstock

Agree with the author

In fact, only professional photographers or designers want to to pay for their activities. And all the amateurs, basically, are happy to publish their image for free.

You can write a private message to a user on Facebook, Instagram or send an E-mail, the main thing is that you have written permission from the author. Just ask the owner of the picture permission to publish photos, indicating all the conditions, for example, how, where and under what conditions the photo will be used. Usually, in response, the photographer asks to sign it under the photo and give a link to the personal site.

The main thing is not to go beyond the permission and stop using if the owner withdraws his permission.

Public domain

As a rule, photos are transferred to the public domain 70 years after the author’s death. This is a worldwide practice, but there are cases when in different countries the picture has a different status, that is somewhere in the public domain, and somewhere not. If there is no certainty that the image is in the public domain, conduct an additional check.

Some sources of photos distributed under a free license or in the public domain are listed below:

• https://www.dreamstime.com
• https://www.freedigitalphotos.net/
• https://offers.hubspot.com/free-stock-photos-business

Use photos that are distributed under the Creative Commons license

Creative Commons is a non-profit community that engages in the legal and free distribution of intellectual and creative products, with the only mandatory condition – attribution. Creative Commons has developed several types of licenses, through which the author can independently decide what rights he wants to transfer to other people who wish to use his work. Here are four types of this license:

• Attribution (abbreviated BY) – free use with reference to the author.
• Noncommercial (abbreviated NC) – it is forbidden to use for profit (for example, printing on a package, an advertising banner).
• No Derivative Works (abbreviated ND) – it is forbidden to modify the image (for example, to collage, add elements, put on top of the text).
• Share-alike (abbreviated to SA) – derivative works must be distributed under the same license.

By placing a Creative Commons license on his work, the author voluntarily renounces some of his rights, for example, from the prohibition on copying or distribution that automatically arise from him when creating a work.

Create your own graphics.

In order to create excellent graphics, it is not necessary to be the 80th level user in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. There are many tools and resources that can help you create your image, for example, Hubspot software has a package of 60 image templates on social networks that you can download and use to create images quickly.

And on the site, the homepage of Canva says that anyone can become a designer with Canva. And it really is, because the service has a huge number of templates for different types of images, with all the elements, shapes, text and much more, you can edit, drag, and add your own. Background images can be purchased, used for free or downloaded from your desktop.

And due to the fact that the cameras of today’s smartphones have impressive capabilities (and some smartphones can do even professional cameras), it’s not too hard to make a cool photo yourself. Not only can you be absolutely sure that you do not violate copyright, but you can also show unique photos to the world