Sorry for the newb question. Is there a copyright or some sort of law to use images from e.g. Flikr.com for a Squidoo article? I tried looking on flikr and photobucket but could not find anything on the subject. Thanks!
I think it won't be problem for big sites like that. They can put to their copyright agreement but i think you can use
Depends what you mean by being a "problem".... by using images from Flikr you are breaching their copyright however it is unlikely that you will be caught... but if you want to run the risk of being sued is up to you (not sure that someone who's footer offers a service to breach copyright is likely to have given an unbiased answer). Copyright must be actively waived rather than actively sort ie if it doesnt say one way or another then they are automatically copyrighted. For the sake of $1 you are much better off buying your images from places like istockphotos.
If you go to a big site (or small, doesn't matter) and ultimately the images belong to Corbis or Getty they WILL hunt you down like an animal and ask you for thousands (literally, I am not exaggerating) of dollars/pounds/euros to cover the "cost" of the theft. Any piece of art made by anyone anywhere is AUTOMATICALLY copywrit and that means they belong to the artist alone. You may NOT take their art without express (not vague) permission. If they have also registered the art, they have full right to sue your sorry butt to the ground and under. Artists who have made exclusive contracts with someone to use their art may NOT then also turn around and let you use it too, even though it's their art, because they have signed a contract with whoever saying that THAT party has exclusive right-to-use. An artist who creates an art while employed by someone else may also not sell, give, or loan the artwork to you without permission of their employer as they were being paid while making the art. Thus, if you wanted a celebrity photo of some chick/actress and it was published on some blog or some tabloid, then even if the photographer says you may use it, you still need to check with his/her employer (who may be GETTY or CORBIS who as I said WILL hunt you down and put you on a stick and sue you for every dime you've got) as well. I hope I got a point across. : )
This actually depends on which country they are in as not all have this stipulation and therefore it comes down to individual contracts of employment/ sale (though it is rare for companies not to have it in their contracts and as such to be on the safe side either assume this is the case or in your contract of purchase ensure the artists agrees to indemnify you for any costs if they didnt have the right to give you permission to use it.)