Often times, websites need photos. A good image can add a lot. They can express something that words never will, they can add ambience, and often people prefer to see a photo of what the subject matter is. But this post is not about photos, but rather about copyright and the proper use of photos.

Copyright

Unless you see a license indicating otherwise, assume an image is copyrighted. In 1989 the law changed; before that to claim copyright, you had to put the copyright symbol, the word copyright, the first year published and your name, like this: “© Copyright 2012 Sephone Interactive Media”.  Even once “All rights reserved” was required for international copyright. Although now, that is all optional and it is now assumed that the content creator holds the copyright. Here are the exclusive rights of the copyright holder:

• to produce copies of the work and to sell those copies
• to create derivative works
• to display the work publicly (like a website)
• to sell or give these rights to others

For example, here are some copyrighted images. Note only one of them has the copyright notice.

My dog in a canoe, on the Passadumkeag River

Justin and Alan, © copyright 2009 Sephone Interactive Media

Creative Commons License

Starting in 2002, Creative Commons has been providing a different form of licensing for content creators. More or less, a CC license means you can distribute the photo at no cost as long as you give credit for it to the content creator. There are several types of licenses available under the CC roof, that grant even more rights to the non-copyright holder, but you can read on about that on the Creative Commons site if you want.

In our post called, Four 10-minute changes to keep your site fresh you can see an example of creative commons in action.

Stock Photos

Stock photos are images that we have bought a license for enabling us to use them on our client sites. We have access to several libraries and will show you those images while designing your site.

Summary

To use a photo on your website, you need to do one of the following:

• Take the photo yourself
• Pay a photographer to take them, which will get you the copyright form them most of the time, ask if there is any doubt.
• Use a Creative Commons license photo, but follow the terms of the CC license they chose
• Ask (and sometimes pay) a copyright holder for their permission to use the photo
• Make sure of your stock photos library

Also,  I am not a lawyer, but have tried to explain US copyright law as I understand it. Your mileage may vary. Use this knowledge at your risk.