Spread Out Image License For Free

Copyright protection gives the owner the right to determine who copies, distributes or adapts the images for further use. The only way to legally use a copyrighted image is to obtain a license or an assignment from the copyright owner. ?It's online, so it's free, right?? In a word ? NO.

If you edit an image that you didn't create, copyright law still applies. The only way to avoid copyright infringement with images is to create unique works, purchase a license to use an image or find a free-to-use image.

Minimum attribution should be Creator's name, Title of the image, Source of the image (Full URL to the image source page/Database to track the source). In addition to online databases, many images can be found on blogs and individual websites.

Use the "Usage rights" filter to find images that have license information attached to them. Google filters images by license based on information provided by the sites that host those images, or the image provider. Always confirm an image's license information.

It's by no means impossible to use an image that is copyright-protected ? you just need to get a license or other permission to use it from the creator first. In most cases, using the work either involves licensing an image through a third-party website, or contacting the creator directly.

It's important to know that giving credit on its own does not entitle you to use an image. For instance, an image published under an ?All Rights Reserved? license (the default copyright grant, unless stated otherwise), means no rights are granted for any use.

If it is ?for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research,? you can apply the four factors of fair use (see the information on Fair Use and Section 107 above) and maybe not have to worry about copyright.