Altering Photos To Avoid Copyright

I'm going to walk you through steps you can use on Google Images to make absolutely sure the images you are planning to use on your blog are copyright free.

But first, what is the difference between image plagiarism and copyright infringement?

I am glad you asked! In a nutshell, image plagiarism is when you claim a work belonging to someone else is yours by out-and-out claiming it's yours, or by insinuating it is yours by giving no attribution to the creator! In both instances, this is image plagiarism.

Copyright infringement is when you use in an unauthorized way an image that you have paid a license for, or the most likely case here on Steemit, you use a copyright image because you found it somewhere on the web and think it must be free. Isn't everything on the web free? Everything on the web is not free! Stock agencies use the web to advertise the images of their photographers, and reputable web sites purchase licenses to use those images in specific ways allowed by the licensing.

So, even someone paying for a license can be in copyright violation. All image licensing comes with terms of usage and those terms don't allow profiting from a photographer's image! If you license an image for commercial use, you may create a greeting card , a mug a t-shirt etc. and sell those products, but you may not profit from the image itself! I think you may have figured out by now that Steemit is for-profit , so you should steer away from copyrighted stock images in any shape or form!

You have found an image you have fallen in love with though, so how do you find the source, and what exactly is the source?

In most cases the Source is a photographer who holds the copyright to the work, but sometimes it is a site like Pixabay, because the photographer has given up ALL RIGHTS to the photograph. An agency such as Shutterstock, Getty, Alamy etc. is not the source either! Those agengies are just agencies with the right to license the photographer's work. When and if it is legitimate to use a stock photograph in a non commercial setting, the correct attribution of an image from an agency looks like this:

Image ©Diane Macdonald/Shutterstock

The source then is never:

1. A link to somewhere on the web where you found the image. The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

2. Pinterest - The images on Pinterest have been put there by others. Pinterest does not hold the copyright to any of these images. What's more, the people who are placing them there likely don't hold the copyright either, although Pinterest's terms say that any images placed there must belong to the person putting placing them on the site! So beware of Pinterest! The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

3. Flickr - Again, Flickr does not own the copyright to images. The images belong to a photographer who put them there. find the photographer if you want permission to use an image. The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

4. Wikepedia - Wikepedia is using an image, hopefully licensed from a stock agency or from Pixabay etc. The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

5. Anywebsite.com Websites are not the source of an image. Websites, just like you, use images, so a reputable website will have paid a licensing fee for the images it is using. The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

6. Bloggers - Unless a blogger states that he/she is the copyright holder of an image, then the images that he/she is using are going to come from a source - a photographer via an agency, a freelancing photographer or a free site like Pixabay. The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

7. Google Google is a search engine! Google does not own the images you find in a search. Don't ever list the source of your images as Google. The source is the photographer, or the free site like Pixabay if a photographer has given up all rights.

Google is a great resource though, so here's how you can find images you can legally use via Google.

First go to Google Images

Enter "game pieces full frame,"

Click on Tools from the task bar

Then click on Usage Rights

If you want an image that you would like to change in some way, choose Labeled For Reuse With Modification
If you are not planning on changing an image in any way, choose Labeled For Reuse

I chose an image of chess pieces and then chose View Image

At the next page, I saw that the image is available from Pixabay and is listed as Free for commercial use and No Attribution Required.

(Remember, Steemit requires that you do name the source of your images, so you do need to provide a link to the image on Pixabay – just to show that the image is one that you are allowed to use.

In the above illustration, we assumed you had no image in mind yet, but what if you have the image, because you found it on the web, and you want to check to see if it is okay for you to use?
No problem!

Let's use my game pieces image. You found it on the web and you want to know if you can use it. Instead of typing words into the search bar on Goggle Images, you drag the image from wherever it is and drop it into the search bar. It's that easy! However, getting to the source is a lot trickier, because the free sites lure you in with tempting imagery that is not free! How do you think they get paid? It's not from the free images, but from the agencies whose links they use.

Let's see how that works! Here's what I did, step by step:

First I dragged and dropped my image into the Google Images search box. I then had the option to search for different sizes of the image. Because I wanted to find all instances of usage found on the web to date, I clicked on All Sizes. It's important that you choose that option!

Next I saw the first page filled with my image. (Hovering over each image with my mouse showed where each image was located on the web, and you can see the agencies like Shutterstock and Dreamstime where I have placed my work)

Next I wanted to see if the image could be used for free, so like in the example with the text, I clicked on Tools then Usage Rights then Labeled For Reuse . The result was did not match any image results.

But, what if you don't know to look on Tools and just decide to hover over the images to see if you can find a free site?

That's just what I did next! Beware of relying on this, because the result is very confusing! I hovered over the images with the mouse until I found Stockvault - a site with free images. I clicked on that version of my image, and I found it there! If I had not known for sure that this is not a free image, I might have stopped there and thought I was home free!

Next I clicked on View Image and the image popped up by itself, but there was a clue in the URL across the top. Check it out!

The next step was to check out what this was all about! Why did my image show up like it was free when it isn't free? I hate to say this, but it was a bait and switch technique that these sites use. Look at the task bar across the top of the Imagevault page and you will see a tab called Premium .

I clicked on that tab, but now I had to actually search for that image I thought was free!

Because my image is a popular one, it showed up on the first page. I clicked on the image.....

.....and finally I reached the page on Shutterstock where I am listed as the source!

You may be thinking that that's a lot of work to find the source of an image. It may be, but would you rather do a bit of detective work than pay up $7,5000 as one blogger had to do? She used an image that was not hers, and she was not authorized to use it. Check out her story here!

By far the best and safest way to avoid problems is to use your own work.

It's your decision. Choose wisely! And Happy Steeming!

Thanks for taking the time to read this! I appreciate it.

Resteems and Upvotes are very much appreciated, and they are helping me to save for a trip to Tahiti, which my husband and I hope to make for our 25th wedding anniversary in 2019!

To find my photography and designs on Steemit, please search on #dianemacphoto and to check out my art prints and stock images, please visit my website.