I spend a lot of time
searching for graphics to illustrate
Web Words articles. For years I used
iStock--a royalty-free but fee-based online site. I'd pay a buck or two for photos. They have a really good search engine and
all was fine until greed took over. Photos suddenly got expensive. Minimum required purchases for credits went way up and time limits for using them went down. I was outta there.
The FactsI started poking around online. Someone mentioned that searching Google images would produce lots of graphics I could publish. I used a few, but I was worried about the legality of my process. Then I learned that
someone I know actually received a demand for a bunch of money from Getty Images for using a photo found online. I decided to do my homework.
I contacted
Paul Rapp, a local intellectual property and arts and entertainment lawyer I've known for years. "I get a couple of calls a month from clients who have been contacted about their online use of photos," he told me. "Just because you find it online somewhere doesn't mean you can use it for free. In fact, you probably can't. Any kind of commercial use of a copyright-protected image, including by nonprofits, is going to be stepping on the copyright owner's toes."
Web Words would be considered commercial even though I don't charge for it because the purpose is to gather customers for my business.
Paul suggested using photos listed under a
Creative Commons license or using your own pictures. He also recommended reading the fine print carefully to determine the requirements for usage.
The SitesI found a few sites that have really good free photos and allow commercial use. Many of them have search capabilities--some are better than others. Note that some require attribution--others don't. Watch out because some of these sites are affiliated with for-fee sites. Be careful as you browse to stay in the free sections.
Morgue Photo--the source of the photo above--has one of the better search capabilities and some lovely photos. Here is what it says about permission for this photo: "You are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a standalone manner." What does that mean? "You can not sell, license, sublicense, rent, transfer or distribute this image exactly as it is without alteration."
Flickr has a
Creative Commons, commercial use category.
This page explains the categories in detail.
The Open Photo Project is a photo-sharing platform created in 1998 by Michael Jastremski. Contributors have offered their images free of charge under terms of
Creative Commons licensing.
Pixel Perfect Digital has some very nice images. Some are free with attribution through
Creative Commons.
FreeMediaGoo.com has a limited selection of photos, but is good for backgrounds and textures.
Do you have a favorite source for free, legal photos? Please share.