You can’t use that image there! ⛔
When it comes to getting promotional material out there, we understand sometimes it seems easier to cut corners than to do the necessary legwork. But time and time again, companies have fallen into the traps of copyright law and been punished with hefty fines. We certainly don’t want that to be you!
Copyright law ⚖️
Images and photographs fall under intellectual property and are protected by copyright law. They belong to the copyright owner, meaning you can’t simply take an image from the internet and use it on your marketing.
Copyright isn’t something the creator has to apply for, it’s something everyone has over all their work instantly. In general, the image will belong to the creator, photographer or artist, and they will hold copyright over the image for their lifetime plus 70 years. However, if the creator was working under an employer at the time, the copyright will belong to the employer in question.
What are your options as a business? 🖥️
For pictures, there are plenty of great websites out there that offer copyright-free imagery. As a business, you will be able to use them across any platform you wish, but you should check the terms and conditions to be sure. Nowadays having an imagery bank to choose from is invaluable as marketing becomes incredibly difficult without it.
Some of the best websites to use for this sort of imagery include:
• www.pixabay.com
• www.unsplash.com
• www.pexels.com
For those who are unsure, these imagery-banks will talk you through what you need and where you will be able to use the photos you choose to download.
What about buying images? 💰
This is where a lot of businesses fall down as they don’t understand what it is they are buying and what they are buying it for. There are plenty of reputable companies out there who sell brilliant photos, Shutterstock probably comes to mind. But just because you’ve spent your hard-earned cash on an image doesn’t mean you can do what you want with it.
Some of the imagery on sites like this will be available for you to buy and use for aesthetic purposes, the header image on your website for example. However, you may not have purchased the rights to use them as part of your advertising campaign, this would be a breach of copyright legalities.
The lesson when buying images is to always check the ‘fine print’, the permissions on images will vary, some offer use of pictures whilst you are a paying member of their website, but that benefit is revoked after cancelling your subscription. Others will provide images that can be used on anything other than adverts.
I didn’t mean to, isn’t good enough… 😬
We can’t stress enough the seriousness of plagiarising someone else’s work, especially when they aren’t mentioned or credited. The ‘I didn’t mean to’ excuse doesn’t stand-up when it comes to plagiarism on several levels.
You don’t want a legal battle on your hands, these will be costly and time-consuming, and the stress is not something us business owners want!
Talk to people 🗣️
Believe it or not, we live in a world where in general, people want to help. If you reach out, we are sure you’ll get the response you want. If you need blog content, imagery or graphic design simply seek the advice and help you want from experts.
If you are looking for any advice regarding anything mentioned in the blog above, or you are looking for a team of creatives who can help with content creation, get in touch with Create8 today!
For helpful tips about planning your website, organising social media and more take a look at the posts below or get in touch!
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