I borrow images from google search for my blog posts.. Is that an offence?
Other than personal images, I usually upload images for my blog from the appropriate pictures I find on search engines. Is this an offence?
UPDATE :Thanks to Indibloggers and my son animator Rayyan, I don't take images from google anymore. I create my own images and also I am trying hard to replace all the images in previous blog posts too.
Reason: update
Even though copying images from most sources are violation of copy right laws, in most cases, you can safely use product images from product owner. For example, you may Samsung phone images from Samsung website and use in your blog. If you read hundeds of pages of their terms, policies etc, you can never find that you are allowed to use those images. But for all practical reasons, they will not sue you for promoting their own product using their images. However, if you take an image from Samsung website and post an article about "How ugly is this Samsung phone", you could get in to trouble if Samsung thinks your blog is big enough for them to go after. In my sites/blogs, I have made it a policy that taking images from any sources are not allowed except product images from official product websites when used to write about those products.
Its not borrowing, its stealing. you cannot use anyone's images. You need to look for public domain images.
Hmmm.. I got my answer long back and since then I have started creating my own images and using it for my blog. I think you did not check my previous comment ;). Being new to blogger I did not know the rules of using google images.
My son Animator Rayyan is helping me create my own images for blog now. They suite the topic well and I feel happy about using my own images too. I don't have to worry much about borrowing images anymore ;)
I don't know .. I simply use them!!
Sometimes it might not be legal .. All I know is .. if someone is gonna ask me to remove an image / two (showing copy-right reasons) then I would remove them for sure!!
Shooting pictures using your own camera is one of the best ways of improving your passion for photography, and if you are a photoblogger than I think it is essntial to use your own photos..and believe me photography is as easy as breathing air provided you have the love for it ..I instilled this sacred love in my grand daughter Marziya Shakir she has been shooting pictures on the Nikon D 80 from the age of 2 and recently began shooting on the Canon EOS 7D with vertical grip .. to take her love photography a step further I saved begged borrowed and got her a Canon 6OD .
This same sacred love is now being imbibed by her sister Nerjis Asif Shakir aspiring street photographer 9 month ..
Take care great topic of discussion ,highly informative feedback..best of luck to all of you ..
Firoze Shakir
Beggar Poet of Mumbai
Yes it is,
Many bloggers wrongly assume that putting a disclaimer that" images are taken from google and no copyright infringment inteneded" suffices but it does not.
On the contrary i beleive it actually compounds your offence because you willfully copied the images inspite of being aware of the Copyright issues.Its like I am stealing this work but i don't intend to steal.
Google has advanced image search where you can search for images tagged with "Free to use for non commercial purpose", you can use that, also always read the copyright info attached
I use images from Google if I need them (mostly for Travel and Photography lessons) and provide a link to the side giving them complete photo credit. However I do not ask persmission. If someone is so possesive about his her photographs then they better keep away from Internet. I believe in Open Source.
Similiarly I never mind if my photographs are used. If someone deems my photographs worthy of use, I should be happy only.
I have come a long way since I posted this topic.. Thanks to all the information given by Indibloggers, I realized that it was not right to use images created by others. I have since started working on my own pictures. My animator son has been great teacher. I create my own images now and I am so pleased with it. It is tough finding exactly what you want, so creating it becomes very easy..
I do not use pictures from net often... and also I do not use good photographs. I use pictures just to show something like a club foot or something very simple. I have around 170 blogs and I don't know how to check all of them and recorrect them. Sigh!
As bloggers we must not use another's photo without permission. I am a photographer myself and I wouldn't want my pictures to be used without getting due credit.
What some bloggers do even extends to media and beyond. There are so many instances of TOI or other newspapers using other's photos without any payment or credit.
In India such plagiarism is still not viewed seriously enough, but attitudes need to change.
If you do not find a creative commons license on the photo, then send a mail or message to the photographer and ask for his/her permission to use the photo.
If there is a license then read through the license rules and follow it. Some do not allow you to crop or modify images and all licenses would require crediting the photographer. The best way to do this would be to put a caption below the image and say "Photo by: xyz" and link back to the original photographer's page.
It is best to credit the source or owner of the image or video, in the long run it will be useful, or one may be asked to delete the photo from posting in worst case scenario. I believe water marked and copyrighted photos are more likely to attract attention. I too use maximum 90% of the time my own photos.
Yup first you must ask the owner or inform them where you are using the images,using creative common images is a good idea because if someone files a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act compalin then google more what would be the result moreover as a true blogger you shouldnt do that as we arent running any warez/torrent site
Now I need to google in free time if the owner doesnt allow to use the images and still someone uses it on the site giving the credits,does it come under DMCA or not
Thanks Sujith and Aashish for the good advice there. Indiblogger forum is a good place for blogging support. You Rock!
Well I too generally google for images and put them for my posts. Towards the end of the respectice posts, I provide the source of the pics though!
Ouch! That hurt.
I did not know this until now. Though I have been blogging for two years, I have yet to learn a lot of things about right way of blogging. Now some detials about obtaining permission.
I have given a thought to it and I am trying to replace as many images as possible on my posts. But what about Movie stills and pictures of famous people?
Why is everyone ignoring that?
Madam it's very difficult to find the owner of certain images. Don't break your head on this, nobody is going to file a lawsuit against you without warning. If a person claim the image with proof, apologize, credit it or remove it as he/she like.
A simple tip to get images for your articles:
Make a list of the categories you often write. Take your digital camera and put the mode into "VGA". Select one category for a day.. You can take hundreds of related images, it can be a flower, object, combination of objects, gadgets, paintings, magazines, people ..etc..etc. Within a month you will be self sufficient.
now thats a +1 Sujith!! Its really tough to replace all the old images on the blog. I too thought about it and then found its not so easy!! Now sticking on to what you have said here. If someone claims their images I shall give them due credit. From on the new posts are going to use only free images or my own!
And about moive stills and pictures of famous people, I am clueless!!
Wow, Sujithji, thanks a lot wonderful Idea. I started that randomly and free from tension of images now.
To say the truth, it is an offence and a violation of copyright. You are using images that you do not have the permission to use. You are ustilising other people's creative work for your needs. It is always recommended that you obtain the permission from the original copyright holder to reuse the images. Alternately, use Flickr where there are a lot of images that you can use for free simply by attributing the work to the original author.
thanks ranjith
>BTW somebody explain about the movie stills, actors or politicians pictures.
I usually get them from Wikipedia. Most of the images there can be used under CC.
ya but i have the same ques about latest news, even newspapers have copyrights.....too
OK I found out that google has free images options in advanced search.... that is good news.
OH great thanks Faridaji, never knew this one
Thanks Shashank and Pramod.
Whew! That is going to be tough. I don't even remember from where I collected few pics. BTW somebody explain about the movie stills, actors or politicians pictures. Can they be used for bloggging?
This is a bit confusing for me. I may have to do thorough clean up of my blog for images. I never use content from anywhere as my blog is all personal.
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