Using photos and images in your articles and blogs can really enhance the look. But using photos other than your own can get you into legal trouble and knowing which photos you can use and how to use them properly is very important.

This article is to the best of my knowledge after reading legal opinions, instructions and Webmaster blogs. The use of photographs is a confusing issue, and you could get into trouble using someone else’s photos without the proper attribution or credit back to the owner of the photo. You have to pay attention to the license and copyright of the photograph.

All Rights Reserved

There is what is called a Creative Commons license and you will see this all of the time when searching for photographs and images. Creative Commons is a way for someone to keep their copyright but also add some flexibility to the copyright license and how the image can be used. When you see “All Rights Reserved”, that means you cannot use it. If you really love the image and want to use it, you have to write the copyright owner and ask for and get permission to use it. If you get permission you also give them credit with the photo.

Creative Commons

There are different types of the Creative Commons licenses that let you know how you can use the photo or image. Pay close attention to the differences when looking for and using a photo or image for your blogs and articles. Pay attention to the symbols and words of the creative commons license. The different Creative Commons licenses that you will be interested in are:

Non-Commercial (NC), you cannot use a photo or image that has this in the license since your articles on Factoidz are considered commercial. If your blogs have any ads on them like Google Adsense or Amazon for example, that is also considered commercial.

Attribution (BY) is what you will see most often. What this means is that you have to give attribution back to the owner of the photo and the license.

Attribution No Derivatives (ND) means you can use it but you cannot change the photo or image in any way. This can present a problem on articles and blogs since most of the time we need to resize the photo, and this license pretty much means no changing.

Attribution Share Alike (SA) means that you can change the original work as long as it is kept under the same license and you attribute back to the owner of the photo. These would be the best to use for articles and blogs since you can resize them.

You would see a combination of symbols for a license like BY SA for Attribution and Share alike.

How To Find Creative Commons Photos on Flickr

Flickr has many photos, but you have to search properly. On Flickr, type in your search word, Flickr will then show the pictures matching your search. Near the search box, click on “Advanced Search”, here is the important part:

Scroll down to CC Creative Commons.

Check the box that says, “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content”

Check the box below that that says, “Find content to use commercially”

To search only for photos and images that you can change and resize, check the third box, “Find content to modify, adapt, build upon”.

Then click Search.

Once you find a picture you like, click on the picture, look on the right hand side and scroll down until you see the copyright notice under Additional Information. Most of these will say, “Some rights reserved”. Click on “some rights reserved” so you can see the actual license information. Most of them in the Creative Commons commercial area will say you are free to use the photo as long as you attribute the work back to the owner of the photo and possibly some of the above-mentioned restrictions. You can also search on Flickr by the Creative Commons license type.

What you want to see is a CC license that says; you are free to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work. To remix – to adapt the work, under the following conditions, that you attribute the work in the manner specified.

How to Attribute a Photo

There are no definitive answers and several options. The best way is to link back to the license and the photo or the copyright owners page where you got the photo. In the below photo, I have a link for the CC or Creative Commons license, that link will take anyone to the actual CC license for that photo. And the second link is back to the original photo and owner; make sure you put the copyright holders name under the picture.

South Pacific rainbow. Photo by Rhett Maxwell

Public Domain Photographs and Images

On Wikimedia Commons, if you look hard enough you can find plenty of public domain photos to use. Do not assume that all photos and images on Wikipedia or Wikimedia are in the public domain, because they are not. Most are licensed with some form of copyright license like Creative Commons.

When you find a picture that is public domain, it will say the following, “I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby release it into the Public Domain.” Or "This image has been released into the public domain by its author" or something similar. You can use those photos and images without having to attribute it or link to any source.

Photos by the US government are usually public domain; just make sure and read the copyright statement.

Places to Find Public Domain Photos

Morguefile, is a good photo site and at the bottom of their home web page is a nice list of free photo sites. Just always read the terms of service for each of these sites. I have found that just because they say free doesn’t mean you can use them for commercial uses.

US Federal Government public domain images, is a huge collection of photos.

Final Notes

Avoid using pictures with trademarks in them. And be careful when using a photo that has a persons picture in it. If you use a photo that has a person in it, use it in good taste or avoid using it. There are laws about personal privacy. If anyone knows of something that is wrong with this information, please let me know. For a more complete description of finding Creative Common photos on Flickr, read the article How To Find Free Photographs on Flickr. For a more complete article on the Creative Commons license, see the article The Creative Commons License and the Freelance Writer/Photographer.

Sources

Brad Templeton Copyright Myths Explained

US Copyright Office information

Creative Commons FAQ