With so many cute cat photos on the Internet, it's tempting to just grab one and use it on your website. But what are the rules and where can you get good public domain or Creative Commons images to spice up your website?
With the rise of visual social media (like Pinterest and Instagram), a clear trend in digital communications is more images and fewer words — even if you are communicating through your website or an email newsletter.
The Rules on Using Images
Without getting deep into the intricacies of U.S. copyright law, it is sometimes legally OK to use images you find on the web and often not. I like our article, Finding and Using Images from the Web, with its basic precepts:
- If you or someone in your organization took a photo or created an image, you own it and can use it without permission. It may be useful to know that as soon as something is created, it is covered under copyright rules. You don't need to register an image with the U.S. Copyright Office.
- If an image is marked as public domain, it has no owner, and you can use it without permission or attribution.
- If an image is marked copyright-free, you can use it without permission.
- If an image is open licensed, for instance under a Creative Commons license (like all of TechSoup's content), you can use it, but in most cases need to provide attribution on who created it. You can see examples of proper attribution at bottom of this post.
- In some circumstances, you can use logos and product images from the manufacturer without permission. This is covered under the U.S. Copyright Fair Use Doctrine. There are some exceptions. For instance, you can't just put a company logo up on your website in a way that makes it look like your website is part of that company. As always, when in doubt, ask for permission.
- If an image is not clearly identified as Creative Commons or public domain, you'll probably need to get the owner's permission to use it. I just have to add that I have asked for permission to use images several times, and most often people grant it, especially for noncommercial use by a charity or library.
Why We Love Creative Commons
We use Creative Commons licensing for our content on TechSoup because it promotes information sharing and innovative building upon creative works.
We want our content to be reusable for noncommercial purposes to have the maximum impact for charities and libraries, but we also want people who reuse our content to give us credit or attribution.
Creative Commons has six different licenses that allow for the perfect amount of sharing.
Giving Credit: How to Attribute Images
Attributions give credit where credit is due, and so we advocate for proper attribution to the creator of an image. Attributions usually can contain three parts, in this format:
Image (with a link to the original image URL): Creator name / License type (with a link)
- Creative Commons example: Image: Michael Naumann / CC BY-NC-ND
- Public Domain example: Image: Durham Public Library Bookmobile / Public Domain
- Getty Images example: Image: CJ Foeckler / Getty Images Royalty Free
Resources
Image 1: Alastair Brown / CC BY-NC-ND
Image 2: Smileus / Shutterstock
Image 3: Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Image 4: LIUSHENGFILM / Shutterstock
Image 5: Creative Commons
Image 6: FeyginFoto / Shutterstock
