Have you ever wondered if you could get you in trouble for pasting a copied online picture onto your blog, website, or using for some other key business? I can say that personally, I did not until I decided to self-publish.

I cannot even tell you the countless number of times that I found myself searching through Google Images, in need of a stunning picture for a school project. Even now years later, I hear friends and collegues claim Google as their site of choice when needing to find the perfect photo to create an invitation, or use in a PowerPoint presentation for work. Regardless of rather the photo is for hard copy or not, if you are not the owner you don’t have the right to use it. In my opinion, I think that using it online only makes it more likely for the copyright owner to learn about his/her property’s illegal use.

I came across an article by author, Roni Loren, Blogger Beware:  You Can Get Sued For Using Photos You Don’t Own On Your Blog. She writes about her own experience in coping and pasting an image on her site. She goes on to say that after a few weeks of pasting one picture in particular, the photographer and owner of the photo, contacted her, informing her that the photo needed to be taken down. This was something in which she did right away, however, to her dismay, the photographer wanted to be compensated. She did not state what the amount was, but did say he wanted a significant amount of money. An amount large enough, that lawyer’s had to get involved to settle things. Long story short she was liable for using it without permission; unfortunately, she had to pay the photographer.

In all honesty, I thought that all Google Images were public domain and free to use. What I never paid attention to was the small print—small print that states “Image May Be Subject To Copyright”. For the life of me, I will never understand that when it comes to stating relevant details, you will always find that information in small print.

I do have some practical news though; if you are looking for high quality free stock images, there’s an assortment of sites in which you can choose from. I even use them for my own website. Since the free sites own the copyrights, there may be some restrictions in using their photos, but certainly nothing that is not doable. To give you an example, they might require you to retain the domain name when using or display it to the public, and that’s something easily done. Listed below are a few sites you can visit.

Http://freestockphotos.com/

Http://www.freestockphotos.biz/stockphoto/11238,

Http://www.dreamstime.com/snowmobile-free-stock-image-imagefree6564066

If you want to look for more free sites just search for Free Stock Photos.

Talk to you later,

R. Lynn