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Images on the Web: An Appeal to Caution


People like to use images in articles, posts and so on. Some feel that it is essential, especially since readers are attracted to an article with an image on Facebook or other social media. Unfortunately, some are risking serious trouble. Mixed messages from image owners complicate matters; is it available for use, or not, and when?

None of what is written here should be construed as legal advice. What I am doing is recommending that we act within the law to the best of our abilities using better information, reducing assumptions, minimizing mistakes and carelessness, and putting aside arrogance.

You may want to stop and get a snack and soda, this is not one of my short articles.

Wrong Beliefs

Let's dispel some of the myths and excuses, several of which I used to believe.

Images on the Web are like butterflies: they're free
That is completely untrue, but a common assumption. Just because something is posted does not mean that you or I have the right to use it. When an image is posted, the owner is not surrendering it to public domain, it is immediately copyrighted, whether formally filed or not. Are you certain that you have the right to use an image any way you see fit? The safest rule of thumb is "when in doubt, go without".

Weblogs, Pinterest, social media, forums and so on are replete with posted images that technically are stolen from the copyright holder. Some sites confuse the issue by giving you buttons so you can share the images to social media, so they have no business complaining if people use those share buttons. But the sites reserve the right to revoke sharing. How they could get possibly thousands of shared images taken back down, I have no idea.

Christians using images from pay-for-use stock sites like Shutterstock, iStock and so on without payment, complete with the copyright watermark, are way out of line! Yes, I have seen pictures like this one on Christian sites, and I'm distressed at the ignorance (arrogance?) of the people posting them. That is theft, cheapness and bad testimony. However, I admit that on rare occasions when I cannot find the actual image owner, I will occasionally use an image that I just can't live without, or that it is scattered all over the Web.

They don't care. Besides, I'm giving them free advertising.
It doesn't matter. You can't assume that they'll just let it go. It may very well be true that if you give credit, the image owner will be happy as a clam. But you may be sued. Of course, lawsuits are a hassle for both parties, and the plaintiff would need to show how s/he was harmed by your use of images, but paying a defense lawyer, even if no harm was done to the plaintiff, can be expensive and time consuming. However, I really don't think many people care if you download an image for your own use, such as a desktop background picture, social media profile image, or to e-mail to a friend.

When I began Piltdown Superman (which usually links to other articles), I used images from the article to which I was linking. After all, I'm sending people to their site. Wrong! Very often, the images they have are their own, or purchased from stock sites. The contract is not with me, and I did not have any rights to those images.

It's non-commercial use.
What does that mean, exactly? I have sites for education and information, and I do not make money (my creation science ministry actually costs me money sometimes). When looking up "non-commercial use", I found some vague and conflicting information. Someone needs to explain it to me. In simple terms.

I'm not making any money on it.
This does not matter either. If it is not explicitly free to use or if you do not have permission, drop it and get it from someplace safe.

It's not uploaded, I hotlinked the picture.
That's even worse. Hotlinking is bad for several reasons, including bandwidth theft because you're taking a free ride and costing someone else bandwidth (and possibly even money). There are times that it is acceptable, such as when when a site has an "embed" or similar option.

Nobody said I couldn't have it, and it's a public upload site!
Many sites allow users to upload whatever they wish. In the Terms of Service (does anyone read those, really?) users promise that they have the right to upload the image. If you look at some sites such as imgur, there is a "Report" button for the copyright owner to get the image taken back down. This linked image is quite likely copyright infringement. You need some common sense, experience and investigation in these matters. No, the Fox network may not take action about all of those Simpsons images strewn about the Web unless someone is making money from them. But do you want to take that chance?

I distorted it so the owner isn't losing money.
That was one of my self-deceptions, of which I have repented some time ago. I would take an image, creatively alter it so the owner wasn't losing a sale, and use it to decorate my posts. Later, I learned that this was still stealing because I really had no right to use it. Someone found one of his images and sent me a simple take-down message. I immediately complied.

There's a tricky area where something is changed so much, it's a "derivative" and considered a new piece. I suggest you fully understand the concept before trying it.
There are millions of sites on the Web, and millions of people posting on social media. They won't catch me.
Wanna bet? Like I said, it happened to me. Once. And I got out of that one easily. But there are people who will report stolen images on social media, or simply complain about it. I saw a creationist use an image, and an atheist who is known for trolling and looking for things to complain about pointed out that the image was the property of National Geographic. This was probably due to the Page owner's carelessness and assumptions such as the ones we're going through now. Sure, National Geographic may never know, and may not even care, but Christians need to be more careful so we do not damage our testimony. If mistakes happen, apologize and take down the picture if you find out that you do not have the right to use it. If you're surprised by a challenge, "Hey, that's mine and you can't have it!", they do have to give reasonable evidence that they are indeed the owner of the image in question. This can be minimized by using safer sources, which we'll discuss later.

They'll just have it taken down.
Yes, and you can have your site suspended until a DMCA dispute is settled. That's where the image owner says, "Hey, cut it out! That's mine and I didn't give you permission to use it!" I have had my own images stolen and uses for libelous purposes, and filed such claims myself. Depending on the site hosting service, the results are mixed.

The heck with that, it's Fair Use!
Yes, that's often a preemptive strike that people will use. (It's amusing in a way, because this is an American principle and I have seen some Brits consider themselves experts in international copyright law.) People will take it to mean, "I can do whatever I want because it's Fair Use". Dead wrong, Reginald. There are several criteria for Fair Use, and grabbing an image for the purposes of libel and ridicule are not among them. Also, Fair Use is not an excuse, but rather, it is a defense that is decided in a court. Do you need that expense and expenditure of time?

News items and publicity photos often fall under Fair Use laws, but you need to use caution on those as well. Here is an example. I am not confident that it applies to what I'm doing, however, so I leave it alone.

Fair Use applies when you go to a manufacturer's site and grab their image of a product that you're reviewing, for instance. I have used screenshots of my own computer and software for instructional purposes, that's Fair Use, too. I strongly recommend that you read "Copyright Fair Use and How it Works for Online Images".

Safe and Possibly Safe Sources

Before I get to the safe spots, I want to urge caution in a few things.

Screenshots of videos.
That can be risky. Use caution, since those are copyrighted as well. It may depend on the age of the video and the attitude of the owner. By the way, embedding videos that are posted on YouTube or elsewhere should not be a problem, especially since they have ways to share and embed them. There have been times where I embedded videos that have been taken down at the source, so I did not have any repercussions.

"Good faith".
This is a legal term. When you use an image in good faith, it is because you thought you were not infringing on anyone's rights. Especially if your source claimed that it was available for anyone's use. It is often used in defense, and if there is a mistake somewhere (or something was misrepresented to you) and you are notified of a copyright infringement, by all means, take it down. I suggest that you tell whoever notifies you that you used the image in good faith, but you've already removed it.

Be careful about using images of people, especially children. Some sites post free-to-use images, but there is no promise that a freely-uploaded image has a "model release" signed by the person in the photo or their legal representative. Unless you are absolutely certain that the picture is public, steer clear. I've used public images that had people in them and still distorted them. Nobody is identifiable, and there's an "artsy" feel to the picture.

Get familiar with "public domain" laws for your country.
This is not as difficult as it sounds because there are some basic guidelines that you can look up.

The sites themselves.
Some sites are glad to let you have their images, and have guidelines in their use.

Government agencies can be an excellent source.
However, "dot gov" is not a guarantee. In the United States, material from federal agencies is usually public domain. State agencies are not, and you need to check the copyright and use policies. Also, watch for image credits, as government agencies will obtain copyrighted images from outside sources. For instance, NASA will post images provided by non-governmental employees, and you do not have the right to take those. If it says, for example, "Image credit: NASA.gov", it is probably public domain. They do want credit, however.

I resize images so people don't have their bandwidth clogged with high-resolution images, and give them a link. It is not often required, but some are trying to get exposure (heh, picture joke) and a link back can help them out. There are some people who will try to sue because, although the subject in the picture is old, they took the picture and did their digital manipulations. This is a controversial area (see the information on this William Blake image). So if you resize a 300 dpi image down to 96 dpi, there's less of a chance for someone fussing about it.

I do not use these, but some organizations pay for images. It can be a real time saver, and they have various plans that may or may not fit your budget.
"Meme" generators.
Pictures with captions, many with a common theme. People use them in various ways, however. Yes, I use them, too. With caution. Anyone can upload something, that does not mean it is up for grabs. Some people think that they can confiscate any picture, run it through a meme generator, put an insulting (or even libelous) caption on it, and that makes everything right. Worse, someone else comes along, finds the image and makes a new caption — and the image was never legally used in the first place.

What I recommend on these things is to use memes that are established. You can do a search in a meme database (be ready for extreme profanity, however), or see if there are many on the Web already. If it has a name, you can search for it (such as Kyle, "Bad Luck Brian"). If I go to a meme generator and the image is new to me or not one of their main stock images, I'm likely to pass it by.

One thing I like to do with the generators is to leave the credit on there ("made on imgur", "imgflip.com" and so on). Although I run them through my photo editing software and add a "watermark" when I want to stake a claim for my captions, I leave their credit (if they put one on the image) for a couple of reasons. One is that I think it's only fair. Second, it's a way of showing "good faith", that I believed (along with thousands of other people) that the meme generator was offering something legally in their stock images.

The most common and established memes often have blank templates. Those can be useful if the meme generator does not meet your texting needs, and you can make one through your own photo editing software.
Clip art.
Sometimes something cute or a simple illustration will take care of things. Clip art can be your friend. Especially if it is contributed to public domain. If you feel like being creative with photo editing, you can have fun with it. Or keep it simple. Open Clip Art and clker have been helpful to me, especially when I want low image file sizes.
Public domain image sites.
There are several of these, and some have been disappointing to me. Perhaps it is because of my special interest areas. However, there are some that can give you interesting items. I like to be different, and will occasionally use very old pictures or even fine art in my posts and articles.

Free-for-use image sites. Always read the terms of use.
Remember, there is always a risk for error or misrepresentation. That is why I keep mentioning "good faith". Many of my images are linked back to the source. Not only does linking show "good faith", but may help researchers in the science articles. Also, when using some of these freely available materials, a link back is not only helping out the photographer, but informs him or her know that it was used in a Christian article. If you go to this link, then click on the picture (which already has a credit caption), you'll see what I mean. (If you're familiar with editing HTML, you can add target="blank" in the "a href=" area.) Many do not require a link back or even credit — but why not? And if you want an illustration in, say, Facebook, you can easily include a link to the image. In this case, I edited the credit onto the image at the upper right.

However, when you post a link on Facebook or use a "share" button, an image often comes along for the ride. That's not what I'm talking about.

Some of my main sources include:
Take and make your own.
I don't know that they're really supposed to be called, but when people make an image that is just text and background, I call it a text image. The reason those are so popular may be due to the fact that many social media sites do not allow formatting on text. I made that one. It's a JPEG, and not a large file (a TIFF of this image is many times larger, and the PNG is somewhat larger). You can take some of those free-to-use images and caption them as well.

When you go for a drive in the countryside, a trip to the zoo, the evolution propaganda history museum, hiking, whatever — bring a camera. These days, they are not nearly as expensive, and you can take quite a few, deleting the ones you do not want. Just remember to reduce the file size and resolution before uploading. Although you don't have to, I like to let the world know that I do own the copyright to my images.

Ask people.
Usually, I am hurrying to complete an article or post, so I use the previously mentioned services. But there are times when I can contact someone and ask if I can use an image. To protect their rights, I "watermark" the image like I did here. Some people don't care about that. Also, you may be able to contact someone on the Web: "Hey, I really like your picture of a moose eating corn chips, can I use it in a post? I'll link back to you, of course". The photographer or artist may be glad to use the image in return for the publicity. Or you may be charged a fee, that's up to you and your budget.

The End of the Matter

These principles can apply to Weblogs, sites, social media and so forth. Christians are called to a higher standard. Some will arrogantly disregard the rights of others and the law, but those seem to be in the minority (I've seen atheists justify their lawbreaking, we don't want to be like them). Others act in ignorance and on assumptions, freely using anything that catches their fancy. Think, people! We are ambassadors of Christ, but with intangible things like electronic images, we may be dishonoring him out of ignorance.

Yes, there will be mistakes and careless slip-ups, and maybe some things will be misrepresented to us (I'm still learning and making adjustments myself). By acting in good faith and taking down genuine requests if we've done wrong or been misled, we can be good examples. Using the safe photo sources will help tremendously, and we will not give our critics a valid reason to criticize us (1 Peter 3.16 ESV).

Posted by Bob Sorensen at 4:00 PM Labels: Bible, Copyright, Fair Use, God, Graphics, Infringement, Internet, Jesus, Theft




