I understand that images are copyrighted and you can't just go grabbing them off the Internet for your own use. What I don't get is, Does that mean that most sites are using images illegally? Here's the "for-instance" I have in mind: I have an American Idol blog (monetized). I would like to use photos of the contestants to go with my original articles. I see tons of other Idol sites using photos. Are they just hoping to not get caught, or is there some loophole that allows them to use these?
I'm sure they're all just taking images via whatever pops up on a Google Image search... Is it legal to use screenshots of a TV show?
I would think depending on the circumstances it would fall under either A) Fair use, or B) They LIKE you talking about their show. Fair use can come in as a defense because you're using the images for illustration only and not directly monetizing them. Putting someones comic strip on your website would be a clear violation, but if you said "Notice the brush strokes used and how the lighting of the character contrasts the background" along with a short snippet of the comic, it would probably be OK. In the same manner, if you have a few paragraphs about a contestant and use their picture of the person for illustration, I can't see a problem with that. Part B comes into play because I doubt American Idol would be upset at all for you drumming up interest in their show, and all you needed to do so was a picture. It's usually best to think about these things from the other side. If I used a picture of a replacement car part from site blah.com and purchased the part from a different company, blah.com would have every right to be upset. However, if I used the same picture *and* purchased the part from the same company I highly doubt they would have any issue with it.
Contact their publicity/marketing department for press photos. They may or may not want to cooperate with you. Some shows will ignore you, some shows will flood you with images and ask you if you want more. I don't do reality or gameshows on my site, so I have no idea what Idol's MO is. Don't post photos without permission. They will C&D you sooner or later. -- Leva
Thank you, people, for your input. I've e-mailed the Fox site to ask about a press kit. It makes sense that they would like to get as much publicity for Idol as possible and maybe that's why there are a million sites and they don't appear to be going after them, as far as I know. Still, as a photographer myself, I know I wouldn't want my images stolen so I'm not going to steal them from someone else.
I just wanted to update this thread to say that American Idol did e-mail me back with a link to photos that I can use on my site. Thanks to Leva for the suggestion; it worked great.
I know Fox has images for American Idol that they release for use for websites. Some of the photos that you are looking for must be coming from their press kit area.