Avoid Copyright Violations

Active Rain encourages us to use images in our blog posts - and for good reason. Images are not only visually appealing, but they can be used as links back to our websites and help to increase SEO.

There are virtually unlimited images available, but most are not available for free. I cringe when I see someone risking copyright violation by using an image that is copyright protected - the fines can be huge!

But what's a blogger to do? On one hand, we want interesting images. On the other hand, we're trying to save money by not purchasing images.

Here are 2 solutions to obtaining copyright free photos.

1. Take the photo yourself! If you took the photo, you own it. There's even an Active Rain Group especially dedicated to photography.

2. Find a photo that you like in the public domain. Here's how to do that:

For a recent blog post, we used an image of a snarling dog.

 

Go to Google and type in what you're looking for. Choose "Images" at the top. You probably got something like this:

Most of these images are owned by someone and can NOT be used freely. Instead, click on the gear in the top right corner under your picture. A pull-down menu will appear. Choose "Advanced Search."

 

A new page will appear. Scroll all the way down to the bottom until you get to "Usage Rights." When you click on "Not filtered by license," a pull down menu will allow you to change it to "Free to use, share or modify, even commercially."

Then, you can click the "Advanced Search" button at the bottom and a new page will appear. All of the images on this page are free to use. Confirmation of that is by the "Labeled for commercial reuse with modification" that appears at the top of the Google search page.

Don't get caught stealing someone else's work! Be sure to use public domain images only!

 

~ Wayne & Jean 

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