Copyright laws change from one country to another but they're basically all the same. Most important, they all agree that's it's illegal to use a picture if:
- you're not the author
- you don't own the right or have a license
- you don't have the permission of the owner
- the picture is not published under CC License (I'll get into that later on)
What is copyright?
Copyright is a series of laws protecting artists, scientists... in short everyone who product with his mind. The author doesn't need to do anything to benefit from copyright protection. As soon as something is created it's protected. The author owns the right of his creation, he can regulate its use, and decide what is made of it. But he doesn't own the right forever, 50 years after the author's death (75 in the EU), his creation falls into public domains.
Examples: using pictures for commercial use
Let's say I'm a company and I need pictures for my next add, I'll hire a freelance photographer to take the pictures. The photographer will be the one owning the rights to the pictures, even if I'm the one paying for it. By contract, I'll be allowed to use the pictures for a specific campaign during a specific time frame. If I want to reuse the pictures for an other project, I'll have to pay the photograph again.
Now let's say, my company employs a photographer, he's part of the company, an employee not a freelancer, then I own the right to the pictures he takes for me and I can use them as much as I'd like.
Now let's say I don't want to spend money but I need a picture for my next add, or for my facebook page or whatever, and I just take it from somewhere off google. This is thief, the owner of the picture's right can sue me and get a lot of money, my website may even get shutdown. Of course if you're stealing a picture from a random blog, you know the guy will never sue you, he probably won't even notice it. But does that make it right? NO
If you're making money on Steemit then it falls under commercial use, the sanction are way much more important for commercial use because you're making money off the photographer's back. Just ask yourself how would you react if you saw someone was making money with a photo YOU took? Even if you give credit to the author for the picture you're using, it's still copyright infringement.
Even if you're taking picture for your private use and don't make money out of it, you're still doing something illegal, it's just that the sanctions won't be as strong.
So now, how to find FREE pictures you can use legally:
Ask for the author permission, and wait for him to say yes before posting anything. Target the blogs or pictures in google map or trip advisor. If you ask a professional photographer you can be sure he will not let you use his pictures for free.
Find pictures that have been published under Creative Commons (CC) License. These type of pictures are free of use and you just need to follow the author guidelines. It may be published under CC License but it may not allow for commercial use, so always check the fine prints. In every case you'll have to give credit in a certain way. The best place to find picture under CC License is Wikipedia or on https://search.creativecommons.org/ .
- There are also some websites that offers free pictures (for example: https://pixabay.com) same here, always read the fine prints about the use you can do of it and how you should give credit to the author.
I hope this can be helpful, if you have any questions don't hesitate to leave a comment.
Free vote for you! Yay!
Educative, thanks for sharing. Upvoted
Thank you for the information!
Useful information, thanks. I like Pixabay and use it fairly often in my blog posts, and now here on Steemit.
yes, there are a lot of different websites to get pictures from
Nice post I really like your travel blogs. Check out mine too! @krillz218. I followed.
Thanks :)
Thanks for explaining. Some people (not only on Steemit) should really know this. I think it's not that people don't care about it (well, some really don't care), I guess the majority just doesn't know about that.
On my travel blog there are hundreds of photos that get stolen and used somewhere else. It's quite terrifying how people steal pictures willy-nilly. Even hotels and travel companies do that...
Maybe they don't it's illegal but they surely know it's bad to take someone else pictures without even asking.
You can try putting your logo or something on your pictures, most people don't have the skill or even just the time to remove it.