AdSense - How do you handle Copyrights?

Oh, ok. I wasn't sure what logo you where talking about. I hope they work out for you. I'm very happy with them.

 

Hi Gman, do not worry. Most entertainment blogs use pictures without properly crediting them. This is the internet: if a photo is on the web it is considered to be in the public domain and you can use it as long as you are not directly profiting from the photo or hotlinking to it. If it makes you feel better, credit the author or website where you got the photo.

 

Now that statement couldn't be more wrong. The fact that an image is available on the web definitely does not make it public domain. That's the same as saying that if a car is parked on a street you can feel free to take it since it's in a public place... just be sure to tell everyone where you stole it from.

 

But am i not profiting from it? Lets say i write an article about something and i use a picture that in found in Google images... also i place Adsense Ads on my article. Am i not profiting from the picture? I mean its in the article.. its part of it in some way. I cant write an article about lets say the new car from XXXXXX without using a picture from this new car, or i cant write an article about a a travel guide to the town of London without using some kind of picture.

Thanks

George

 

As soon as you have any form of advertising on a site that means that the site is no longer non-profit. Just take a look at the legal issues threads concerning Getty Images. They are demanding $6000 from people that used their images without paying for them.

 

Look up copyright laws and public domain genius.

 

Like I said, you can use the picture but credit it to the owner or the website you got it from. It isn't like you're CNN or Fox News using copyrighted photos. Nobody is going to go after small sites using one or two pictures because the attorney's fees would be prohibitive. Copyright attorneys start at $200 an hour. It's not worth it to them to go after you if you're making pocket change from Adsense ads. There are thousands of websites (including mine) using Google pictures every day for years.

 

I think you are the one that needs to brush up on copyright laws and public domain. An image provided on the internet is not automatically in the public domain.

Some information:

Any image or other work is automatically copyrighted once it is fixed in a tangable form (including digital data). For example, let's say I take a photo of a cat. I created that photo and the copyright automatically belongs to me. Now I upload that image to my blog. Google indexes the blog and the image in the image results. The copyright of the image still belongs to me even though I uploaded it to the web. If someone else takes the image using Google images the copyright still applies and that person would be in violation of my copyright to the image.

 

Hehe... you are truly NewToAllThis my friend.

Publishing something on the internet does not just magically remove its copyright or cause it to magically become public domain.

 

No problems I think if you use it as part of your content or your core content is something different not image site.

 

what happens if you edit the image so it's no longer the original?

 

That would still be a copyright violation. You are not allowed to create a derivative work from a copyrighted work.

 

If you want free images without worrying about copyright issues, use Flickr.com. Their terms of service allow you to hot link images as long as the link in the image points back to the image's page.

 

You will still have to worry about copyright. While Flickr might allow you to hotlink to images, it can't give you permission to use the images. Flickr doesn't own the copyright to the images they host. The respective users who uploaded the image does. You will still need to first obtain permission from the copyright holder before being able to use the image.

Also with Flickr you might actually run into bigger problems. There are a huge collection of images that are uploaded to Flickr by members that don't have permission to upload the image or have copyright on the images they upload. When the real copyright holder finds the violation they can take action against you and Flickr for copyright infringement.

 

You cannot just copy & use whatever you like from where ever you find it.

Some sites have free pictures you can use, like this one http://www.sxc.hu/home And they have 34 pictures of Buckingham Palace.

And some sell pictures at very low prices. I can't say which ones are best, I never bought any.

If you are writing an article about say, how to bake potatoes, then take your own pictures. Or take your own pictures while visiting Buckingham Palace.

Google images search says on every image "Image may be scaled down and subject to copyright."

 

I few poster have said this already, but I just want to stress it here:

Do not use images that you find on the Internet unless the license to use them explicitly says you are allowed to use them.

Anything you find on the Internet has a copyright unless someone gives away that right.

If you use copyrighted material, you will get into trouble. It doesn't take a team of lawyers to issue a DMCA takedown and get your service provider to remove you site from the web.

Again, do not use copyrighted material.

 

It's better to use royalty free images from somewhere like istockphoto.com

Didn't someone recently post that they got banned from google cuz the BBC reported them for copyright infringement?