Is your company at risk for losing up to $150,000 per image you post online?
The battle of copyright infringement from artists versus the businesses that use their art has been heating up. Our offices are seeing more and more of these types of matters. Photographers and visual media content creators do need a way to protect their rights, but at the same time, unscrupulous individuals or groups will actually bait businesses into using their photos like a trap, and then pursue damages far exceeding what might be considered reasonable.
Your business is constantly marketing itself, on social media, in the newspaper, and online. Pictures help tell a story. When communicating your brand, images and other types of rich media are crucial in helping you communicate your image.
So what can you do to protect yourself from accidentally violating a content producer’s rights?
Use trusted hubs of content acquisition honestly.
The single greatest protection you can use is to play by the rules. Thankfully, the rules are mostly straightforward, and there are phenomenal hubs out there on which you can find the perfect rich media for your website and have ethical and reasonable value exchanges with the artists that produce them.
Stock photo sites allow you to pay a smaller fee and receive an outright license to use the photos, videos, etc. However, a lot of businesses complain that some of the larger commercial stock photo sites are either too expensive or use somewhat misleading pricing structures. The strength of these sites is the volume of professional class photos, where there is likely to be the right picture you need.
Some exchanges are priced more fairly. One to check out is
Businesses do not always need to buy the highest resolution photo, which is usually more expensive. For general blog content, you can usually get away with buying the smaller resolutions, which can be as inexpensive as $1 per image.
Let me repeat that, a $1 investment can buy you a license to use a photo that benefits the photographer, and protects you from a potential $150,000 claim, plus legal fees.
Use Creative Commons Licensed content
While this is an option many businesses use, you have to be more careful doing this. Many businesses think that they are in compliance by simply giving credit to the author and thinking that action made it “fair use” or “Creative Commons.” The publisher needs to specifically license the content as Creative Commons.
What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons is a set of potential licenses that allow others to use their content. There are various levels. This can range from, “Anyone can use my photos for free,” to “Only non-profit organizations can use my photos, but they cannot alter the photos, cannot make money off of the photos, and must attribute credit on all publications in a specific manner.” You need to pay attention to the type of Creative Commons license the artist is specifying, and follow the directions of that license. Many Creative Common licensed photos actually disallow use of their photos for commercial purposes, which means you cannot use them on your blog, brochures, videos, website, etc.
Follow all of the instructions contained within the license. Do not cheat. If there is an awesome picture that cannot be used commercially, either contact the artist to work something out, find another CC picture, or use a stock photo site.
Where do I get CC licensed photos?
http://search.creativecommons.org
The official Creative Commons website has more information on license types and how to stay in compliance. Additionally, the above URL is a great starting point for where you can find CC licensed content. Please remember to check that whichever piece of content you will be using is specifically licensed on Creative Commons. Just because Flickr is listed as a CC resource does not mean every photo is listed.
How else can I protect myself?
Have yourself or the staff in your organization that handles outward facing marketing be briefed by your business lawyer. Some insurance firms also offer a marketing insurance policy that covers lawsuits of this nature, and they have their own resources to help you promote compliance.
The copyright complaints out there range from legitimate publishers protecting their work to people who have built a career out of predatory copyright complaints. For example, there is a photographer who has a web page titled “Free business wallpapers.” The text on the page encourages use of the photos, but at the bottom in small text it states that they should not be used commercially. The photographer then works with a copyright lawyer, who employs technologies (similar to Google’s “Image Search”) to find websites using those images. They skip the cease and desist letter, and go straight to a threatening demand letter. Usually the demands are in the high tens of thousands of dollars. The business can either pay up, or battle in court.
It is highly recommended that before you release communications using other people’s creative works, you consult with a business lawyer to make sure you are in compliance with copyright laws.