Using Images from Google

We're kind of running a student research group and we need to use some images we hooked up from google that truely depicts our purpose of work. What is the best way to give credit to the photographer and yet use those photographs? How can you be sure they are royalty free images, since our work is non-profit, we cannot really afford to buy royalty on them.

And we could not really find relavent images at the stock image sites.

 

"Royalty free" does NOT mean ok to use without paying anything. Giving credit does not give you permission to use something that isn't yours. If your organization has a non-profit status, will not charge for anything or run advertising, you may be able to claim "fair use" - however, that doesn't prevent someone from suing you, and the best approach would be to obtain permission from the copyright holder. If you can't determine who is the copyright holder, don't use them.

 

Ah I see. Then should I be writing the concerned blogs who have them for permission first?

 

Also, I have found that a lot of the sites where Google indexes the images are likely NOT the copyright owner of the image. A blog owner cannot give you the right to republish an image that he has no rights to in the first place.

 

Use them. If any issue occurs, immediately remove them. You'll be fine.

 

Ah yes. The old "Do it until you get caught" advice. Always the popular legal opinion around here.

 

I get all my images from a search for images tagged as creative commons over on flickr. I always link back with a credit to the owner, sometimes I post a comment too. So far I've only had one photographer chuck a hissy fit, retract his CC license back to all rights reserved and demand a takedown from my webhost. He probably set that license accidentally ... I found another virtually identical image quite quickly, thankfully.

On the odd occasion I can't find a flickr image, I've used CC images from wikimedia, images from sites that explicitly allow use of their images under a simple fair use policy (there are plenty out there - generally they are official .gov sites though, not random wallpaper sites), and when that fails I've found images on various websites from google - generally not blogs though - and asked the owner nicely if I can use it. So far, they've always said yes, so I have linked back to their site with a 'used with permission' tag.

There are ways and means to minimise the chance of nasty copyright issues.

 

A photographer friend makes circa $3000 a month from people taking this attitude - about 50% more than what he would make if they paid for the rights in the first place.

As stated, you need to discover who the copyright owner is and ask their permission. As by the attitudes of the above poster, be aware that just because someone has it on their own site doesn't mean that they have any rights to the image.

If you do approach the sites currently displaying them you may want to start from the angle of "who took the photo" but people may still lie.

 

There was that big thing going on, or still is going on in Germany. A married couple created a cooking recipe website. The woman she just filles the websites database with loads of recipes and the guy took photos for each dish. Using SEO he made sure his photos would land on the first page of Google images.

After 6 months he started looking on german cooking forums and german blog and he sued every forum and blog owner that had a picture up that he created. He sued over 100 people over the years, and each time he won and got up to 2000 Euro.
Many forum owners said it was just one of there users that wanted to point out a good dish, and he would delete the picture straight away, but the guy didn't care and said its too late and sued.
It's a loop whole in the german copyright law and no one is doing anything about it.

 

If you need any help contact "GLX Law Officers" free legal advice and copy right service.

 

Google don't seem to have a lot of images of their own, and I doubt they'd be happy if you just started using them without permission.

if you mean the images you found on Google, you need to wise up - these images belong to other people, and the fact Google is listing them is irrelevant to the legality of you stealing them.

 

What i do is go to google images and make advanced image search ..in option:Usage Rights i select "labeled for commercial reuse with modification" ..you get less results but it's safe i think .

 

Okay let's not talk about German...let's talk about US or Canadian law.

Let's say you use an image, someone sued you right away and didn't give you chance to remove it. If yuo remove the image, how can he prove that you used it? Also how can he prove that he got a copyright on that image? Sorry but I don't even know how to copy right my image.

 

You own the rights to your own work unless you sign them away. You don't have to do anything. How can anyone prove that you used them? Well, if they intend to make an issue of it, I expect they'll take screenshots.

 

You can always use images. The correct way is to refer to APA Manual. If you ask your professor or any Masters student who is doing thesis, he should guide you.

You can also find APA manual in any library. Its a manual basically which tells you how to give credit, how to write biblography etc.

Let me know if you need help. I can help you on APA maual.

 

no you can't.

 

What complete rubbish - you don't have permission to use copyrighted images unless you GET PERMISSION. And unless you know otherwise, assume all images are copyrighted.
And asking for rep is against forum rules. Asking for rep when you're cheerfully advising someone to do something they can be for sued for, is the height of moronic stupidity.

 

Rather than steal the image, if I really wanted it, I would use/link the image from its original location. That's how Google gets away with it.



That image breaks no laws but you're subject to it being deleted or changed at the originating website.

I don't believe the 'my friend earns more suing' story having lost thousands trying to chase up just a few fraudsters myself. It takes a lot of money to track, sue & deal with people using your photos. I'd say the photographer friend is very unusual if he's making money suing people. Most of these people are already broke or they wouldn't need to steal their images and it costs a lot more than you could ever get back.

I think only lawyers profit big time from that, are you a lawyer by chance?

 

Truth is, there is no way to determine the rightful owner of any image on the internet. Very few lawsuits go to court over images. Judges will in Most cases throw them out.

 

I run into a lot of people who think they can vail themselves in a "non-profit" status and commit crimes. just because you are "non-profit" doesn't mean you can steal things.

"we cannot really afford to buy royalty on them" No ? you can afford to go to school, buy food and drink, go to the movies, buy tee shirts but you can't afford to pay someone trying to work for a living a couple of bucks for their pics ?

Out of your whole group no one has $5-$10 ?

No one cares that you call yourself "non-profit" if you steal stuff from hard working people you will likely have repercussions.