Getting permission
An easy way of making sure you don’t infringe on copyright is to get the owner’s permission. Many owners allow their work to be used for free, although some will charge if you’re using the photo for financial gain. Fair use refers to images that are copyrighted, but may be used for educational or research purposes, or if their use benefits the public in some way. Make sure you always link back to the creator, but don’t presume doing this is a substitute for asking for permission.
Another route is to search for photos that have been released into the public domain. This means that they no longer have copyright restrictions, either because the creator gave them up or because the creator passed away and nobody owns the copyright anymore.
Even if you edit or crop the image, many creators are one step ahead and have integrated the copyright information into the source code so they will be able to track if their image is used elsewhere. And don’t presume that not linking back will reduce your chances of being caught; this is essentially equivalent to claiming the work as your own.
Use stock photos
There are many sites where you can find stock photos that are either free or inexpensive. Shutterstock has over 90 million unique files. As well as photos, there are also vectors, videos, illustrations, icons, footage, and music. Its content is royalty-free, which means that you can use the content multiple times over different media after a one-time payment. There’s also no time limit; once you’ve posted it, it can stay there forever. The opposite of this is rights managed licensing, which means you can use content only for specific media, industries, or regions, and for a given period. Luckily, this isn’t the case with Shutterstock. The company even offers at least $10,000 indemnification, which protects you in case a creator of certain content tries to claim infringement has occurred.
Flickr is an image and video hosting site where over 7,000 photos are uploaded per minute! Content can be uploaded to share with family or friends, or visitors can look through the vast amount of amateur and professional images to get inspiration for their own projects. Much of the content can be used for free, but not everything is up for grabs; Flickr users can determine the restrictions for the images they upload. It’s possible to set licensing levels such as ‘All Rights Reserved’ (all material is copyrighted) or use various Creative Commons licenses. Flickr Creative Commons has a clear system showing which license each photo is under and what you have to do to comply.