Hi all, Do you think it would be ok to take screenshots from YouTube videos, photoshop them and use them as pictures in my blog? I looked around at a bunch of stock photo sites, but most of the pictures there just don't do it for me because they really look staged and don't bring any life to the site. As long as there were no brand names/logos/celebrities included in the screenshots do you think it would be ok to use? For example, if I decided to take a screenshot of a cityscape or a building, honestly, how many people would be able to identify where the pic came from? Just wondering your opinion on this and if anyone else has done this before!
You may run into trouble with it. But if you do it right you will have no issues. It really depends on how you use them in your blog and how identifiable the source of them is.
Copyright images or text are 100% owned by the source of the copyright - hence you may need permission and/or check the terms on the site publishing the pictures/and or text
Yeah, but half the time things on youtube are violating copyright laws and it may be impossible to determine the copyright owner. At which time you will pretty much just have to protect yourself in such a way that it is impossible to determine your source, therefor impossible for anyone to come at you with a legal suit and win. In your scenario OP, there are a lot of variables in play. Can you give an example of what you have/plan on using?
Well simply make sure that if you publish material you have a disclaimer re what you publish in case you violate a copyright terms
Ok here's an example of what I was thinking... In the first 3 seconds of this video is a nice picture of a building that would be cool to use... It's a commercial for Gucci: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BDazlHxKwo I'm not going to use that exact screenshot, but that's an example of what I mean. There are no trademarks/logos or images of the actor in that picture. I've just found a lot of cool imagery in videos that could be used as pictures, instead of boring stock photography.
You need permission to use any photograph you didn't take. It doesn't matter if it has a copyright or trademark on it. If it isn't yours, you need permission. If you can't determine the owner, don't use it.