One of the biggest myths about the world wide web is that virtually everything you find is free to use
Oftentimes, when we are building a new website or revamping an old one, we ask the client for fresh content and images. One of the replies we get the most are the cringe worthy words, “Can’t you just take them off the Internet?” Yikes! Once we explain that you cannot simply take anything off the web and use it as you see fit, sometimes the next question is “…but can’t you just change it a little bit?” That’s also a big, whopping NO unless you find images that allow permitted use, typically as part of a Creative Commons license, public domain or with some type of special written (documented) permission.
Be aware that if you didn’t take a picture, or someone else created it, and you found and saved it from the Internet, it would probably be copyright infringement to use it
Copyright law varies by country. For the most part it’s common sense. Trademarks, logos, brand images and so on are protected by copyright and if you use them without permission you might get a nasty violation notice. Avoid using celebrity photos. Celebrities have legal teams who love to send out cease-and-desist requests to people who use their images.
Do NOT just go to your favorite search engine such as Google or Bing and search for images and then grab the one you want to use. Use the following methods to find and safely use images that are free to modify and share.
One of my favorite tools is the “Search Creative Commons” website, which allows you to search several free image websites via one interface. The screenshot below came for using this tool:
Fortunately, there’s a wealth of free to use free to use and modify stock image resources on the web. These are some of my favorites:
- http://search.creativecommons.org/
- https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
- https://www.flickr.com/commons
- http://www.morguefile.com/
- https://stocksnap.io/
- http://pixabay.com/
- https://unsplash.com/
- https://picjumbo.com/
- http://www.imcreator.com/free
- http://nos.twnsnd.co/
- http://www.gratisography.com/
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