Newbie has a copyright question

[Lakes_Puma]

I've just been reading a couple of the threads on copyright infringement and it's got me worried and confused.

I didn't realise the whole subject was so serious.

Say for example I was creating a personal website, maybe a blog or similar and was talking about how I was going to buy a new Ford Fiesta.

So I jump onto google images and search for Ford Fiesta, I find a nice black Fiesta like the one I've just ordered.

There is no watermark or copyright information visible on the photo so I put a HTML link or download the image file to my webspace and insert a link in my website to the image.

How do I know if I've just infringed some copyright and will get a £700 bill in 6 months time?

 

[Photo Plod]

The only way to be sure that you have copyright of an image is to use one that you've taken yourself. The odds are that, in doing what you've just done, you've infringed a copyright belonging to somebody.

Whether or not that person ever finds out is another matter, but simply "copying & pasting" will be no legal defence to copyright infringement. Although it may make a difference to the terms of a legal settlement (in terms of amounts of money owed), the fact that you're using it for "personal use" will not make any difference. It doesn't matter even in the slightest whether or not you ever make money yourself from the image; copyright can still be infringed (and damages awarded) even when you redistribute something for free.

As you say, it's serious because photographers lose money over it. I don't do photography for a living, but I don't spend money on all my equipment, time and effort just to make money for other people - if someone is making money off my pictures, I want a chunk of that pie.

 

[Musicman]

The only way to be sure that you have copyright of an image is to use one that you've taken yourself. The odds are that, in doing what you've just done, you've infringed a copyright belonging to somebody.

This.

Alternatively, you might seek out images of a Ford Fiesta that have been released under licences like Creative Commons which may allow you to use the image for non-commercial purposes (or indeed in a commercial context, depending on the specific licence).

Given that the first Ford Fiestas hit the market in 1976, it's highly unlikely that you will find a photo upon which the copyright has expired and that is now in the Public Domain.

 

[Carousels Spin]

Given that the first Ford Fiestas hit the market in 1976, it's highly unlikely that you will find a photo upon which the copyright has expired and that is now in the Public Domain.

Or you could search in something like Wikimedia Commons for photos where the person who owns copyright has released it into the public domain, which is what I do when looking for example pictures to demonstrate to someone. For example, I might find this picture of a snowman:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snowman_2_meters_tall.jpg

 

[Lakes_Puma]

Thanks for the information, most enlightening.