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Disclaimer: I am not an attorney. I am not providing you legal advice.
Copyright is everywhere. Anyone who tells you that something is copyright-free is not doing you any favors and could get you into trouble. They are very likely mixing up the legal term, "copyright" with "royalty-free," "trademarks," and/or "creative commons licensing" terms.
Someone out there has to create content in order for it to be available. The term, copyright, is defined by the US Government as follows:
A form of protection provided by the laws of the United States for "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, architectural, cartographic, choreographic, pantomimic, pictorial, graphic, sculptural, and audiovisual creations. "Copyright" literally means the right to copy but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, title, principle, or discovery. Similarly, names, titles, short phrases, slogans, familiar symbols, mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, coloring, and listings of contents or ingredients are not subject to copyright (http://Copyright.gov).
As a staff member here on AR, I get the occasional email from a member notifying us of another member committing a big no-no on the site - copying and pasting someone else's work onto their blog and publishing it as their own. Here's our official board of no-nos, if you need to recap. While the biggest no-no is copying and pasting, we often come across the occasional image issue.
It's so easy to share images on our site, but just because you can, it doesn't mean that you should (at least without permission of the original creator). Why? The original creator can find that image through a handy little Google search and tell you take off that image - if they are nice. Big media moguls such as Getty Images are notorious for their crusades against unauthorized use, demanding high-priced licensing fees, on the other hand. See here for more info. Keep in mind that some people and groups only give permission for individual use, but not for commercial use. You need to know the difference.
It's not worth it to be sued. If you're not sure, don't post it. It's better to be safe than sorry. You can also reach out to any legal aid in your area regarding copyright if you have questions. We also have some very savvy attorneys on our site!
I came across a really great blog post earlier today referencing sources of FREE COMMERCIAL USE images. It's definitely worth a look - be sure to read all disclaimers first since they all have different terms though:
http://homeschoolblogging.com/free-image-sources-commercial-use/
Start off your year purging out any old pictures and content that you didn't create or have permission to use. This will also give you a chance to update any old content and purge all that dead SEO weight.
Happy 2015!
Mary
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