In this ever-evolving world, people like bloggers, marketers, e-commerce businesses, etc are using images on their daily commercial work such as blog posts, product display image, web banners, photo editing service etc. But, knowingly or unknowingly they are using images that are protected via copyright.
This has become usual nowadays that if you need an image for your post, you are simply searching on Google, downloading it and posting it to your website or other online publications or posts.
This is completely a wrong way of using images on any site or page. If any copyright image gets uploaded online, there is a huge risk for you to pay a severe penalty which may make your business face a lot of difficulties for further growth.
Regarding this fact, you should know almost everything about copyright issues, types of copyright issues and types of image licenses. And here we’re going to give a proper detailed answer to almost all types of copyright infringement and how to avoid them.
Tricks
Don’t download from Google – One of the most common mistakes maximum people do is that they download the image directly from Google and use it in their content. This is completely a wrong way to use the images. As most of the images that appear on the search list are copyright protected. There are other better sources to get images from and we’ll provide you with those sites in the next few points. For now, don’t directly and download and use images from Google or other search engines.
Public free domain – So, in the last trick I told you about some other sources for getting images that are licensed and can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. These sites are known as public free domain sites and they have used some great and handy images that are licensed which mean that this has been bought from the owner and can be used anywhere. In other words, you can say that these images are completely free. Few of the best sites are Pexels, pixabay, unsplash, Flickr, creative commons, picjumbo, and getrefe.
Change usage rights – There is also another way by which you can directly take images from Google and can also use it in your content without a bit of risk. It’s quite simple, all you have to do is just go to Google images and click on the tools option below the search bar. Then you will see there is an option of written usage rights. Change the usage rights to your preferred choice and then you will find new images on the search list and these images will be free for commercial use or non-commercial use depending on the option you select.
Break Pixels – There is another way by which you can use images downloaded from Google even if they are copyright protected. You need to break its pixels. If you break the pixels of an image that is copyright protected then the whole information stored in the photo will change and it will become a new photo different from the original one. This is why Google or any law cannot claim that you have broken the copyright law. You can outsource such services from a clipping path service provider at a very low cost.
Get the permit from the owner – Sometimes there is no option for you to download or recreate a new image but you still would want to use the actual image in your content. When this situation comes, you can then take permission from the owner of the image and can make an agreement with him. Keep the legal documents of the agreement reserved so that it may come in handy if anyone tries to violate the laws in that agreement.
Give credit – Sometimes you may have to give credit to the owner of the image you’re using in your content or else he may file a copyright infringement case against you. Therefore, make sure you give his work some credit.
Fair use – There is a doctrine of the USA copyright infringement law known as Fair Use. That limited materials can be used while using the image on a different content and if used more than permitted then there will be a penalty to pay for. Don’t trust these laws as there are some small terms provided in this doctrine that may stop you from using these images further in future.
Raster to Vector – There is a different, unique but very much tough way to use an image that is copyright protected. That is to use the raster to vector technique and recreate the same image using Photoshop. This way your images that were in a raster format will get converted into a vector format with completely new pixels. Using these images in your content will be safe as they aren’t the downloaded image, this will be an original one.
Design yourself – The safest way to be protected from copyright infringement is to create your own images using Photoshop and other different photo editing software. This will help to keep your content and its images completely original.
Actual product photography – If you’re an e-commerce retailer and you need photos of the product you’re promoting then don’t download the photo from Google. Click the photograph of the product by yourself using a digital camera or phone. Product photography is a great way to use actual and original images.
Buy images –Few of the most known and reliable sources are Shutterstock, gettyimages, iStockphoto, and Fotolia. Buying an image will give you the complete rights to use the image wherever and however you want to.
Conclusion:
There are many other sorts of ways to stay safe from using copyright protected images. And using such images will not just affect yourself but it may also affect the popularity of your business and any type of bad news about your content will make you lose conversions and loyalty of your customers and readers. This is why I hope that reading the tricks above you may now be able to keep yourself safe from further use of images that are copyright protected in a wrong method. Stay safe!
