I notice that big blog/news sites like: businessinsider.com, weburbanist.com, techcrunch.com, often put a link underneath photos they put in their articles linking to the website they got the photo from. Is this all you have to do if you have your own blog/news site and you want to use photos from other websites? Or do you have to write ever single person and get written permission from them? What do these websites do? - Businessinsider.com, weburbanist.com techcrunch.com etc. I am starting a news/blog site and want to know what I can and can't do
Linking to a site does not unburden you from copyright law which states that you must have permission. Many bloggers and others falsely think that a backlink absolves them from the need to get permission; it's simply not true. The law is a bit ambiguous when it comes to news and excerpts which is why so many folks get it wrong. On the other hand, if a major player in any of my niches borrowed a picture without asking and gave me a backlink, I probably wouldn't complain. Of course, that assumes, that the picture is all that they borrowed and they sent me some decent traffic.
You're right CB but it seems just easier to answer them than try to find a moderator to move this sort of thing. Of course it would have been nice if the OP had bothered to search for the hundred or so other threads covering the same question before asking it again.