What can I use for pictures? Can I use images that I find on google?

My god, she's right you are a baby. Grow a pair and man up.

Bcondie: There are only two people's posts in this thread (besides the advice I'm about to give) that you should consider, if you're interested in doing the legally correct thing: Michi and KT. The rest of what I am reading is conjecture and crap, if I'm speaking candidly. There are many misconceptions in this area (many many people are ignorant of the law even though they believe they know something because they read a snippet of an article somewhere or because their "friend who is a photographer" told them); they think that's good enough to give advice. They're wrong.

Here's the deal (I work in the industry and know the licensing issues well):

1. When a photographer takes a picture, he or she (in the vast majority of cases) owns the exclusive copyright and (also exclusively) all usage rights to that picture until such time as they license some or all of those rights to companies or other people. Registration of that image is NOT required to legally own or claim the rights, although some photographers do register shots with the copyright office to make damages easier to collect when generating infringement claims. You are potentially setting yourself up for an infringement case if you don't do your homework...

(Note: there are arrangements that some portrait photographers use, where a famous person being photographed is licensing the photographer limited use of their likeness, but for this purpose let's assume we're not talking about portraits of famous people or any other portrait that requires the photographer to get permission to take the picture. When that happens you have to consider the rights of the person being photographed too... a potential headache for sure when you're re-using images.)

2. Given the first point you must verify that the web site:

a) acquired those photos legally (example: you know Getty or iStock is not going to sell or allow free downloads of photos they don't own the rights to, as they don't want to get sued and trash their reputation);

b) is providing a real license for you (the buyer or downloader) to use the images in published materials, and for commercial purposes (if you're selling your book and not giving it away). If the site does not provide a license that spells these things out, don't use it as a source for your book's photos!

c) does not have a limitation in its licensing terms that would make placing the images in an iBook a problem potentially (e.g. "not more than 300 copies / instances")

3. You need to be very careful about the language from royalty-free sites and even "Public Domain" sites. Sometimes photographers allow their images to be used in these places with the stipulation that the USE is NON-commercial in nature. And frankly some sites that claim to be "public domain" are not being honest / are giving some portion of their images away, that they have no right to give away.

So, if you're selling your book, you have to make sure that every photo is sourced from a reliable site, and that whether you're getting them for free or not, there is a provision in the license agreement (that you should be able to read and download) that allows for commercial usage WITHOUT additional fees or limitations as to medium or number of copies.

If you can find that arrangement, you should be all set. 🙂

Bcondie72 wrote:

I have taken your advice and found a few sites that have free images. Stockvault was one of them. Let me know if I am on track. Thanks again.

The Stockvault terms of use prohibit commercial use. If you want to sell your book, you cannot use these images. If you give your book away for free, you'll be OK.

The only other caveat is that, by using images from Stockvault, you trust their assurance that Stockvault indeed has the right to make the images available. The terms of use also state that, if an image is found to not have the rights claimed by Stockvault, and the copyright owner sues you for use of the image, you cannot try and recover costs in turn from Stockvault. In effect, the EULA requires you to indemnify Stockvault for misrepresentation.

Whether this EULA would actually hold up in a court is something you'd have to ask a lawyer. I know that blanket wavers such as this are often legally meaningless (at least in Australia) because common law does not allow companies to abrogate their responsibilities in this way. But the legal situation will almost certainly be different in other countries.

Michi.

Dan-o

In the past when we have used other's images in projects we have used bona-fide and legit sources and paid for them. We read over the legal disclaimers for the lower cost images with omitted words, etc and decided on using houses where we felt much more comfortable, and we paid a higher price for that peace of mind. That is the reality I have experienced first hand and it is not conjecture and crap. If you, and the others want to think that it is, well, be my guest. It has been 4 years since and there are probably many thousands of individuals (in garages or spare bedrooms) that are selling images on the net now and you are right, you need to be very careful. As is evidenced on this thread, most here don't give a hoot about using another's images. If it is on the net, they feel they can use it for free.

You are also right to warn people of the pitfalls of using these images without permission which is how I got into this discussion; trying to warn first time book builders of those dangers so they don't load up their eBook with another's images, and then wonder why their book doesn't fly thru the review process.

And Joe, your comments really make you look...blissful.