Need a quick picture for a blog post, web page or anything else? If you’re like most people, you jump into Google Images and grab a great shot from there.
Unfortunately, that puts you at huge risk of lawsuit, because, unless someone specifically grants rights to you to use a given image, every picture taken in the United States (and in most other countries) is considered to be copyrighted, and the property of the person who took that picture. (By the way, this includes pictures taken in photo studios, so that class picture of you isn’t yours – I know, something’s really wrong there, but that’s the law!)
Let me stress something here – this is serious, you really can get sued, and if the person has taken the right steps in copyrighting their picture, you could have to not only pay them a huge amount for stealing their image, you could also be charged damages, which could be serious amounts of money!
How do you get around this? You could:
- Laboriously negotiate payment for rights with the photographer
- Go to sites that sell rights for pictures and pay them for the images that you use (like stock photography sites)
- Use creative commons-licensed content and follow the restrictions specifically placed on each particular image.
Of these three options, the cheapest is using creative-commons licensed images. Creative Commons is a non-profit system that offers an alternative to full copyright. Basically, it’s a special licensing system that allows people to use content without the hassles of negotiation, licensing and fees. It’s worth spending a few minutes studying the different options available through Creative Commons at http://www.creativecommons.org
One of my favorite places to find Creative Commons-licensed (CC) images is www.flickr.com because Flickr has tons of CC images and they make it easy to find images that carry those licenses.
Here’s how to find those images:
1. Start by going to Flickr’s advanced search function
2. Fill in your search terms at the top then drop down on the page to the creative commons section and indicate what you plan to do with the image. You’ll see three options there:
Checking the first box restricts your search to show only pictures that are creative-commons licensed. That’s important, because you don’t want to waste your time falling in love with images that you can’t use because they aren’t licensed.
The other two boxes are optional. If your blog earns you any money at all (whether through advertising, selling something, or even if it is just part of a money-making operation,) you should check the second box “find content to use commercially.” Otherwise, you’re still at risk of someone claiming your usage of their image was commercial, and you get caught in an argument that can get expensive.
If you plan to alter the image, by using it as a part of another image, putting a stripe across it with your url inside, changing the colors, etc., you should also check the second box to “find content to modify, adapt, or build upon.”
Boxes checked? Let’s go to step 3, assuming that I’m looking for images of puppies. Cool! 29,780 results.
3. Find an image that you love and click on it to find out more about that image
Here’s a delightful little Maltese Shihtzu puppy that reaches out and grabs your heart. Let’s check it out
4. 
Once you get to the page, you ignore everything else that it says about the image, and immediately drop down to the bottom right corner to the Additional Information section and check on the Some rights reserved link. Again, you want to know the facts before you fall in love with the picture.
In this case, the license is Attribution 2.0 Generic, and dropping down you see that you are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work and to remix (adapt) it, provided that you give the rights owner attribution. That’s good. That means that you can basically do what you want with it, provided you give them credit.
So how do you give them credit? See that line that says Attribute this work? Simply grab the code in that box, put it on the page with the image, and you’re good to go. You can see how I’ve done that in the section at the bottom of this article where I say Photo Attribution:
Just be careful to follow the rules associated with each individual image. By checking the boxes for commerical usage and modification, you’re usually safe, with Flickr only showing you pictures that you can use.
The place where this can bite you is if you, over time, separate the picture from the attribution. So, avoid creating a folder of favorite images to which you turn to grab pictures any time you need them, unless you devise some kind of system of attaching the attribution statement to each image in that folder.
That’s it, simple, easy and quick. Just make sure you’re disciplined, and you’ll find generous people happily providing great images for you to use!
Have other places you like to go to get Creative Commons images? Tell us about them in the comments section below!
Photo attribution:
Related posts:
Don Crowther is a leading social media marketing and online marketing expert. He helps companies ranging from Fortune-500-level giants to entrepreneurs make more money online using proven social media and search marketing techniques.
Lots of great information here – thanks to everyone. Can anyone point me in the direction of similar sites where there is copyright-free and free music that can be used in the background of videos that I’m creating for my websites? Many thanks.
Hi there,
Jamendo is a great site for music that you can use under creative commons or use for commercial purposes – Like Flickr you do a specific search for either “use on website” or “commercial purposes” and they do have a lot of different types of music available for use.
Enjoy
Lisa
That’s an excellent addition to the Social Profit Formula.
Would you know if it is OK to use that kind of CC “licensed” pictures to use in books (I mean books that will be sold, paper of PDF) ?
Thanks a lot.
Sophie
I imagine yes, with proper attribution, but I’d do some checking first.
Don
Thanks for the information,
It’s so valuable.
And how is it that under puppy dog picture above
there isn’t a link to the photographer’s page/ site?
Go to the bottom of the page, and there it is. Nothing says that the link has to be right below the picture. It just has to be on the page.
Don
Hi Don,
Question/ Suggestion…If using the image on your blog, would it not be simpler, and cleaner looking to simply give the attribution by simply giving the picture itself a link URL back to the provider? You can also put the providers info in as Alternate Text. This keeps from having to “see” someone else’s URL plastered right there on your Post, while still providing the proper link back to them.
Actually, that’s not sufficient – Creative Commons licensing requires a specific attribution statement.
Don
Thanks Don! Useful info, very practical. Will use it right away!!!
Super handy stuff. I might add another great source like http://www.photoandbeyond.com. Thanks for the article.
Thanks Don! You have saved me a lot of money! I have been buying pictures and it does get costly. Very helpful and valuable information on this post and on your whole blog! Pictures on a blog does make a difference to the readers. It gives them a visual of what you are talking about in your post. Since I have been using pictures I have more readers visiting my blog.
I have a question and I hope Don can answer it. Can I follow this process and use the pictures for videos that I upload to Youtube?
Conceivably yes, through I haven’t tried it yet, and don’t know how it would work with YouTube’s policies. Obviously, you will need to give credit for the pictures within the video itself some way.
Don
Hi Don,
Great Article + VIdeo
Here’s the major source that I use for getting photos (FREE commercially and personally)
http://1photos.com
Photographer’s Note: “All of my photos are free for corporate and personal use. Every image is free! 1photos.com”
Something is telling me that all the pictures from this site can be found on Flickr under the “Creative Common License”
but that’s just a theory 
Yours,
Chris Diamond
Thanks Don! That was perfect – just what I needed to know about finding pictures to use on my blogs.
I have a question. If flickr is the site where we can use free and legal photos commercially for our blogs, Where can we find free and legal videos especially MUSIC VIDEOS that we can use commercially for our blogs? Can we use YOUTUBE videos? Is it legal and safe to use them for our blogs?
You can embed YouTube videos in your blog legally. But be aware that YouTube will honor the poster’s request to block embedding, which will mean that any embedded YT videos you have in place may well go away without warning.
I don’t know about legal music videos, that’s not my marketplace, so I don’t track it. Anybody else know about this?
Thanks for this list!
I can add http://www.picdrome.com, a growing Public Domain picture collection, free of copyright and licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication. All items are free to download for personal and commercial use, without restriction and are available in high definition. New photos are added on a daily basis.
I wonder if it’s illegal to get photos from Google images and then post them into my blog.
It is absolutely ILLEGAL. Can’t do that.
Don