What is your go to source for an image on the Internet? Have you ever stopped to wonder about the copyright implications and ownership of the images you download? Well, if your are like most of the human population, the short answer is no. And, not giving it a second thought can end up costing you money.
Technology allows us to right click, download, save as, and copy & paste an image without hesitation. In turn, we use those images on books, blogs and presentations, just to name a few. We do this automatically without considering the artist or photographer who created the image, which as it turns out, is perfect for your own use.
Many of the images you find on the Internet are copyright protected. By law, the creator of the image has certain exclusive rights over his creation. Downloading, saving as, and copying & pasting of an image for reuse without authorization are all violations of these rights. Such violations can end up costing in excess of $150,000.00 per infringement.
Sites, such as Google Images, do provide filtering tools on usage rights or clearly state that the images may be subject to copyright. Other sites provide stock images, fee per image used, monthly or yearly subscriptions for access to their image database. However the image is obtained, it’s copyright owner can use technology to track it through the Internet and identify if its use violates his or her exclusive rights.
It is up to the user, to pay for the images it obtains, set up the search filters and verify if the image is copyrighted. All of this does sound complicated, but it is not. Bottom line, just because it’s on the Internet, doesn’t mean it’s free to use.
If you have questions or need help figuring out what you should or should not do, contact me at patricia@afterthoughtip.com. We are here to help!
Author: Patricia Ramírez Gelpí, J.D., LL.M.