Get the picture! 3.2 billion images are shared online every single day. You can use most of these images to promote your business and create interesting art.
But you can’t just grab an image off of Google and plaster it on your website. You need to be aware of different types of image licenses in order to avoid legal problems.
What are the most important licenses for images? What image should you use if you run a news website? How can you decide if something is in the public domain?
Answer these questions and your work can have bold and meaningful images in no time. Here is your quick guide.
Rights-Managed License
A rights-managed license requires you to define how you will use the image. You must specify how many times you will use the image, what size the image will be, and what industry you are from. Many stock images are under a rights-managed license.
This license prevents competitors in your industry from using the image. However, this license is very expensive, and you need to get another license in order to use the image somewhere else.
Editorial Use
An editorial use license lets you use images with logos, celebrities, or recognisable products. However, you can only use them in news stories to illustrate something.
If you are writing an article about a movie star, you can put an image of the movie star at the top of the page. But you cannot use the image to make money or advertise your business, even if the movie star is associated with you in some way.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that offers several public copyright licenses. Each license is different, so read the terms carefully before you use an image under Creative Commons.
An image with a CC-BY license lets you use an image for any purpose, even commercial ones. A CC-BY-ND license means you can use an unaltered image, but you cannot distribute an altered one. A CC-BY-NC-SA license prevents you from using an image commercially.
Public Domain
Many people think that the public domain is a kind of license. In reality, it’s the absence of a license. It means that no one has filed for copyright protection for an image, so you can use the image however you want.
In the United Kingdom, artworks enter the public domain 70 years after the artist dies. However, photographs taken on or after 1 June 1957 that were unpublished on 1 August 1989 still have copyright protection. Check to see when your photographs were taken before assuming they are in the public domain.
The Different Types of Image Licenses
Before you start using photos, you need to know about different types of image licenses. A rights-managed license gives you maximum control over the image, but it can be expensive to obtain. An editorial use license lets you use images with copyrighted materials, but only for news purposes.
If you want flexibility with your images, you should look at CC-BY and CC-BY-ND licenses. You should also get images from the public domain 70 years after the photographer dies.
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