How to Use Google Images and Not Get Sued

If you have a website, particularly if you blog, you are likely looking for images to post.  I have typically used iStockPhoto which is a great source for reasonably priced stock photos.  But how about free?  Well Google Images allows you to easily find free images.

The secret is the advanced search settings.  One of the search criteria is "Usage Rights."  It allows you several options "labeled for commercial reuse" being the the option you are likely to want.  Here is a short video tutorial from John Marshall law student Jessica Dobias:

For her full article:  How to Use Google Images and Not Get Sued.

One think you will want to be careful of is to check the actual terms of the license.  For example, I searched for "paperless office" & "labeled for commercial reuse" and found this picture on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/publicresourceorg/ / CC BY 2.0

On the Flickr page it notes that "some rights are reserved" for the photo.  Clicking on that link, I found the photo was licensed under a Creative Commons license allowing use for "to copy, distribute and transmit" it but with the stipulation that an attribution be added.  Here is a screen shot of the Creative Commons license for the photo:

Thus, you will see I added the attribution to the photo.

So the moral of the story is that you can find a wealth of photos in the public domain or licensed for free commercial use.  Just finding the photos on using Google's advanced search is not enough though.  You also need to check the actual terms of the license.

- Peter H. Berge

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