The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Julian Earl — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 18:29:08 GMT

Try this website; I got good photographs at a very low cost for the practice website a few years ago Read up the terms etc. but it was easy as faras I recall: http://www.istockphoto.com/

HTH?

HTH

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 17:18:44 GMT

Quite a useful guide here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/305165/c-notice-201401.pdf

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Aine Seavers — Mon, 09 Nov 2015 22:40:16 GMT

So does the reverse happen- can we bill the likes of an online pharmacy that takes an article one has written about a medication and used the vet's name and paper under each photo of the product as if endorsing the pharmacy's selling of said product- if so I am owed a motza so if any lawyered up vets want half the bill I would like to present to the company- let me know

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Wren — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 09:03:40 GMT

I am familiar with this issue from both sides of the equation.

As a co-owner of a magazine-type website focused on articles on, and reporting from, a particular sport I have always been extremely careful when sourcing our photos. Generally I like to go and get my own image of something where possible, or use one from one of the copyright-free online stock libraries. I thought everyone was aware of the image copyright issues, but from this conversation, and others I have had recently when I have seen people 'pinching' images for practice websites, it would appear not!

The other problem we have is image theft. We have an excellent semi-pro photographer working for us and taking lots of pictures at events. These pictures are very popular with competitors. We post them both on our website and on our FB page. We use a watermark in one corner which is small enough not to obscure the image, but big enough to be obvious. It is possible to remove it via photoshop, but it is certainly not easy, and it a lot of people who would be happy to copy the image are not willing to go that extra step. We welcome 'sharing' via FB but downloading or copying the image is unacceptable. We do see our images being used on competitors' websites and FB pages. If they ask us, leave the watermark on, and credit our website, then this is OK, otherwise we send them a fairly firm but polite message asking them either to remove the image or purchase a copy of it. Purchased copies can be used freely and are supplied without a watermark. We also get asked to supply images for businesses/sponsors/print publications and these are provided at commercial rates.

So as someone who is often on the other side of the equation I do find image theft very annoying. It costs us money and effort to send a photographer somewhere for the day to take all the images, and it can take her several days to edit and upload all the photographs she takes. Although it is very easy, and does not feel like a criminal act to copy or download images, it is still theft.

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Martin Atkinson — Tue, 29 Sep 2015 18:36:19 GMT

[quote user="Niall Taylor"]

Do you mean this one specific photo had copyright restrictions? Was it taken by a professional photographer?

Surely it can't have been an owner charging for the use of their dog's image.

Probably a bit of a daft question but I'm a bit twitchy about this sort of thing myself!

[/quote]I found a picture of a gerbil on Google images and put it on our website page about erm.....gerbils. A couple of years later I got phone call from the breeder whose picture it was who was not happy. I'm not sure she would have had the wherewithal to sue me but I took it down anyway even though she had agreed in mitigation for me to add a link to her website - I wasn't happy she was a reputable breeder. I also posted a picture of one of my nurses I'd plundered from one of her facebook page on here as a joke about uniforms (she was wearing very skimpy 'Carry on nursing' type uniform for a fancy dress party). I would be very wary about doing anything like that now although knowing her I'm sure she would have seen the joke.

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Neil Wheadon — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 09:09:36 GMT

It's an issue

A few years ago I found 4 images filling a cycling pamphlet. A polite letter and a cheque arrived in the post. Photography is a skill and good images don't come cheap, (Camera equipment and time involved) I'm quite careful now about releasing images, only publishing reduced images on the web (size of file)

Modern media is digitally based, less is in printed format now so from a photographers point of view why should your image be simply plagiarised without permission?

Facebook is an interesting question. Their terms are

Sharing Your Content and Information

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it

I read this as basically you are giving the image to Facebook. I heard a story of an English family turning up in the USA to see their happy family advertising a venereal cream - charming!!

(What I do is place the reduced file size image on Facebook rather than let Facebooks technology reduce the image size, so they can't get the image enlarged.)

The question of permission also needs covering. In the booking conditions for CTC Cycling Holidays we have the following

21. Marketing

Photographs, likenesses or images of participants secured or taken on any of our holidays may be used by the company without remuneration in all media for bona fide promotional or marketing purposes.

Therefore I'm covered when using pictures in marketing material as we are quite fussy about getting a hard copy signature agreeing to the booking conditions.

Neil

PS That's not me. Road to Maupin in Oregon, Sisters mountain behind

Being critical, I should have taken in RAW rather than high def JPEG as sun from the side and Ian's face could do with better illumination, that's what you are paying for.

PPS I'm spending today going through the Oregon images for publicity purposes for the company, that's a days work that I don't want 'pinched'

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Niall Taylor — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 08:55:48 GMT

[quote user="Pete Wedderburn"]1) My article was about using photographs from the internet for your own website without paying due attention to copyright issues - this is what you can get financially stung for.[/quote]

We got stung for this once (hence my interest) after I 'borrowed' a thumbnail of a photo of some MRSA organisms for an obscure article on our website many moons ago.

[quote user="Pete Wedderburn"]2) A separate issue, which I did not address, is the potential complications if you take a photo of a client's animal and use it on your website without their permission. I am not sure how big a complication this is, and I am certainly guilty of doing it a lot. I know that I should get them to sign a disclaimer, but I take verbal consent as being sufficient. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had problems from this at all?[/quote]

I'm not a lawyer but, while it would be the courteous thing to do to ask permission I'm pretty sure there would be no legal reason you couldn't publish a photo of someone else's animal where you liked. In the UK it's not even possible to copyright your own face (as a few media folks would like to do) so I can't believe it's possible to copyright images of your pet.

It might cause ill feeling, but not legal proceedings.

Niall

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Pete Wedderburn — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 08:39:47 GMT

There are two separate issues Niall:

1) My article was about using photographs from the internet for your own website without paying due attention to copyright issues - this is what you can get financially stung for.

2) A separate issue, which I did not address, is the potential complications if you take a photo of a client's animal and use it on your website without their permission. I am not sure how big a complication this is, and I am certainly guilty of doing it a lot. I know that I should get them to sign a disclaimer, but I take verbal consent as being sufficient. I'd be interested to know if anyone else has had problems from this at all?

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Niall Taylor — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 08:30:24 GMT

[quote user="Pete Wedderburn"]I've just had the unfortunate experience of being sent a bill for using a photo of a dog on my website without properly checking permissions for copyright.[/quote]

Do you mean this one specific photo had copyright restrictions? Was it taken by a professional photographer?

Surely it can't have been an owner charging for the use of their dog's image.

Probably a bit of a daft question but I'm a bit twitchy about this sort of thing myself!

Niall

P.S. - Sorry Pete, I've just clicked the link to your article and got the full story - should have done that in the first place!

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Pete Wedderburn — Fri, 25 Sep 2015 15:12:12 GMT

if you share a link, the picture comes up on Facebook -that's what most people do and no problem with that. I think potentially more complicated if you save a photo then publish it yourself....
pete

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Deborah Anwyl — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 16:16:53 GMT

Does anyone have any idea if this extends to sharing images on facebook. Our website images are all our own but one of the receptionists has a fondness for 'funny picture of the day' inevitably shared from some other source....

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Michelle Ingram — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:53:03 GMT

If you want to use Google to search for images then this is what I use this http://www.google.co.uk/advanced_image_search or there is a site called pixabay their pictures are free, worth reading the t&cs beforehand, you can donate a cup of coffee as a thank you. There are few other sites that you can get free images from too.

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Pete Wedderburn — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 13:19:24 GMT

I just checked your tortoise image by putting it into google image search and there are about 30 places where it has been used. If I was the photographer (or his agent) I could check each one to see if legit credit was given, and if not, send them a bill. You'll be relieved to know that your avatar did not come up on google image search! It doesn't reach into vetsurgeon, obviously. But the message is don't use any image if you are not sure about copyright or you could be sent a nasty bill down the road.
Vicky, please, please don't use those images. How much do you want?

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Pete Wedderburn — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 13:11:07 GMT

Searching to check if an image is lieensed is simple - Google Image Search is available to all - drag and drop a small copy of the image onto their screen and watch page after page of infringing and legit uses of an image on the internet roll up - if you are a photographer and you find a photo use which is not legitimate, you can either contact the website owner and ask for money, or you can ask an agency (like Getty) to do it on your behalf...

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Vikki Halliday LLB — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:58:02 GMT

So you mean the photo I have of you from your time at RB&W, you're going to charge me to publish them on t'internet Pete?

Hmmmmm, I'd have thought there may be more merit in paying me not to publish them!

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Martin Atkinson — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 12:13:06 GMT

I had a similar experience a couple of years ago and was sent a bill for £850 from Getty Images for a tiny picture of a passport I used on my website. I tried to argue that if someone posts a photograph on the internet it is implied that it is free for all to use but sadly this is not the case. It was going to be a hopeless task trying to fight a multi-national organisation but I managed to negotiate them down to £600! I did post a thread on here at the time so you must have missed that Pete!

I now only use my own pictures or those off the website builder's library and there is a fee for some of those. That said the picture of a tortoise I use for my avatar was lifted off the internet I wonder if the owner of that can hold me accountable?

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Aine Seavers — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 11:50:35 GMT

Hi Pete- I will have to email you privately on that :-)

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Pete Wedderburn — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 11:43:30 GMT

Great idea Aine - a bit different to what I was talking about but yes, it gets around the issue of accepting clients' photos with a clear conscience that you can use them. What is the app?

RE: The high cost of using photos on your website without proper copyright

Aine Seavers — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 11:41:02 GMT

we get around it by having a clinic app- to which the client actively sends the photos to us for publication on our site- a default permission as they download the app, they click and send their pic for our gallery.