Using Images Legally

All of the images you see on the internet are someone’s property, and if you copy and paste them into your communication, you may be stealing. Additionally, the concept of fair use allows the use of an image “for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.” If your work falls into one of those categories, you’re safe. Otherwise, your use of the image is considered a violation of copyright law.

Royalty-Free Images

A royalty is a payment made to the copyright owner for each use that doesn’t fall under the fair use exception. There are royalty-free sources of images, videos, and other visual media out there. However, “royalty-free” doesn’t necessarily mean “without cost.” On the contrary, sites like Getty Images or Shutterstock often charge licensing fees and even instructions on how to give the original artist credit for his or her work. But once that transaction is complete, the visual media is yours to use as you wish. There’s no need to pay royalties for copies sold or each time you use the image.

Open Images

There are plenty of open sources of images that can be used free of charge. Some authors and artists have released their works under an open license. This means their works are free to use, modify, and share.

Many of them work with a Creative Commons license. Creative Commons is a US not-for-profit organization that’s devoted to expanding the range of creative works available to the general public, and it does so by providing copyright licenses to creators, allowing them to express which rights they want to reserve and which they waive, or release. These licenses replace individual negotiations between the artist and the user.

In many cases, images covered by the Creative Commons license can be used free of charge if you simply credit the artist. This might mean captioning your photo with “Photographer’s Name/Getty Images” or “Credit: Photographer’s Name.” You can learn more about the different Creative Commons Licenses on their site.

Finding Open Images

• Pixabay: There are over a million free stock photos to choose from on this site, all high quality and high resolution.
• Unsplash: This site has a great selection of business photos to choose from. 
• Flickr: There’s a section of free-use photos here as well. You simply need to filter your Flickr search by license (Figure 2).

• Google Images. A simple Google image search now has the function of searching for images based on usage rights. Click on “Tools,” and then “Usage rights” will appear for you to choose the type of license that fits your needs.