Using Images on Your Blog
Copyright laws are a slippery area, especially when it comes to “borrowing” other people’s photos for your blog or Web site. Check out the Creative Commons Web site for a rundown of the various ways that work can be protected and shared. The icons representing each license type are fairly standard and you will frequently see them on Web sites that contain original content. If you want to borrow from a site, try to find their Creative Commons policy to ensure that what you’re doing is legal. You generally shouldn’t have to look too far to find this information.
For example, if you look at an image page on Flickr, you can find the copyright type under “Additional Information.” This image has “All Rights Reserved” and legally cannot be re-purposed on your blog. I took it and you didn’t. On the other hand, this image only has “Some Rights Reserved” and the Creative Commons license says that the photo can be used with attribution.
For an entertaining (and thought-provoking) take on copyright law, watch A Fair(y) Use Tale:
Now that you understand what kind of content you can and cannot use, check out the following 10 Places To Find Free Images Online.
There is also a previous post on finding usable images from last quarter’s Interactive Storytelling class.