Understanding Copyrights on images

A picture is worth a thousand words, we all know that. The web is becoming more and more visual, so our thirst for using images on our sites is growing. But if you want to use photos or illustrations on your website, or any other marketing material, you need to by careful and check that you have the rights to use these images, otherwise you might get into trouble.Typically, an image is either in the public domain, i.e. anyone can use it for free, or it has some kind of usage restrictions defined by the author (the photographer or illustrator).



Let me explain the differences:

1. Licenses or rights-managed:
You can buy photos from photographers or stock photos websites and discuss the terms of usage with them, which will determine the price of the images depending on where they will be used (website, brochure, advert), how big the circulation will be, how long it will be used for, etc.. Licensing works well for large corporations or for people wanting exclusivity on their photos. But it can get very expensive for small businesses or individuals, so I would stay away from this model.

2. Royalty Free images:
Images in this category are free of royalties, meaning that the buyers don’t have to pay each time they use the image. The rights are the same for all buyers so no one can have exclusivity on these images. I would recommend buying Rolaty-Free images in most cases. Since many people buy them, prices are usually very reasonable, from a few dollars only.

3. Creative Commons:
In an effort to simplify the use of licenses and with the rise of online work, Lawrence Lessig founded the Creative Commons license. There are a few variations of the license, each stating what you are allowed to do with the images:

• Attributions: You can use, distribute and modify the image as long as you give credit to the author.


• Non Commercial: You can use the image and modify it, but only for non commercial uses.


• No derivative works: You can use the photo and distribute it, but you are not able to modify it.

You can learn more about Creative Commons on their website.