I've seen many times that gadget sites will have pictures of cellphones, computers, etc. on their banner. Is this illegal? I know that you can't have a trademark being prominently displayed, but how do you get this images. You can't just take 'em (copyright violation) and edit them (copyright violation). So do you just ask the company, " Hey I want that on my banner can you provid e me with an image."? Do they charge you? Skinny
I can't see how its illegal. Big companies (Intel, etc) will give you a rebate on advertising if you use their logo on the ad.
It would probably come under fair use, but it would depend on the type of site, how the images are used and how many of them there are. However I'd suggest that it's a better idea to use public domain/freely usable images if possible to avoid any potential problems. Or pay for the rights to use stock images from a company such as Ablestock, but that'll cost you...
I had a similiar situation with a company that I market products for. I asked my affiliate manager and all I had to do was get a signoff from his company on the artwork before I used it. I gave him the artwork and 2 days later after some small changes I was off an running.
You have two issues rolled together here. The first is whether you can take a picture of a product. The second is whether you can use an actual photograph that someone else took. You generally cannot use someone else's photograph without permission. The manufacturer may not care, but the manufacturer may not own the actual photograph, depending on how the photographer was employed and paid. As a practical matter, most commercial product websites will have a press section somewhere on their website. In that section, they will have photos freely available for press to use in articles and on websites. (Here, for example, is the Apple page of this type - http://www.apple.com/pr/products/) Whether you could use those images in a promotional banner is a different question, but at least you can identify a specific image and know to whom to direct the question if you use that kind of resource. This is not, of course, legal advice. I am not your lawyer, and we do not have an attorney client relationship.