Everyone gets photos on Google without thinking cares of the consequences. Bad practice. Copyright lawsuits can reach thousands of dollars, even for small businesses.
Here’s the image site usage repercussions.
Google Images is a copyright copyright suppression explosion
Every image you find through google belongs to someone. Almost none are unavailable for commercial use. You don’t have access to licensing information. You are basically risking everything with other people’s creations.
Business owners circumvent legal image use licensing paying $800-$3000 on settlements. There are lawyers who specialize in this stuff.
Unsplash and Pixabay look safe, but are not
Anyone can upload photos. The services make no guarantees regarding ownership or legal releases for every image copyright uploaded.
Let’s say a person falsifies their image and uploads it. You use it in your campaigns, the person in the photo sues you. Not the uploading platform, you.
The terms of service on these sites are three words, “good luck, you’re on your own.” Courts have sided in favor of image subjects and copyright holders.”
Website builders are stolen work
As Wix, Squarespace, and Mailchimp fill images from the same troubling sources, they give users a false sense of confidence claiming that those images are checked. In reality, they are not checked.
All these put tremendous effort to cover the underlying issues which in this case is like putting glitter on a rusty car.
Flickr mixing licensed and unlicensed content
Sounding official does not make Creative Commons less complicated. Not every CC license permits commercial purposes, some need attribution, and some are modification-free.
Users on Flickr have the freedom to mislabel their uploads as they wish. This includes CC, when in fact, they lack the rights to license it that way.
The free aggregator with the most crime
Websites like Morguefile scrape images from all over with no barriers. They have zero standard. With no verification or legal backing, this falls under no quality control.
Essentially, these databases are digital junkyards and while you can find something useful, you’re digging through a lot of legal hazards.
Where free image uploading works
Unlike other platforms, Kaboompics steers clear from AI-generated fuzz, manually curating everything and serving safe content, focusing on proper releases. While they still contain errors, they are much safer than most.
Freepik is a prime example with actual curation and its own licensing system - clear terms for commercial use, spell out attribution requirements, and unambiguous clauses.
Make sure to check CC0 and commercial friendly licenses on Flickr. Remember to look at the license of every image individually.
Paid licensing removes most issues for stock image services like Shutterstock, Getty Images or Adobe Stock. They validate claim and provide legal indemnity for the provided amount, which comes at a higher price but also with real safeguards.
For smaller businesses, spending 10 to 50 dollars to purchase an image is much more reasonable than facing 2000 dollars in legal fees.
A reality check on free image services revealed no site guarantee full protection and reasoning behind every vetted service proves there is always a loophole. For the most protected approach, use verified paid stock photo services or hire a photographer to snap original pictures.
It's crucial to keep records for every license from screenshots of the capture terms to download windows. Legal copyright claims happen months or years after, so it important to defend your ownership.
Using the internet to search for images doesn’t simplify the process of acquiring legal usage of them.
In summary:
Avoid google images and any stock sites without reliable reputation, website builders and mixed license platforms like Flickr. For free options, use Kaboompics or Freepik and for serious commercial undertakings where legal ambiguity is an issue, turn to paid stock sites.