The Right Image

I have finally come to grips with how hypocritical it is for the husband of a professional photographer to steal images off the internet for his blog posts. Today I am making a commitment to only use images in ways that to the best of my knowledge do not violate their owners' copyright.

I am no lawyer, but reading has lead me to believe it is illegal to use any image without the permission of its creator, either written or in the form of a license (including a public domain license, which applies to all photos taken in the U.S. before 1923). There are exemptions for fair use, but the rules are hazy and I think the ads on my blog preclude me from taking them. Copyright has its issues, but that's no excuse for me not to honor creative people.

Luckily, finding excellent, free-to-use images on the internet is easy. Here are some resources I've found:

• Advanced Google Image Search – Search for images licensed for reuse
• Advanced Flickr Search – Search for Creative Commons licensed images (these usually only require an attribution; check under "License" on the image's Flickr page to find out)
• Wikimedia Commons – A huge archive of freely usable media (great for pictures of famous folks)
• stock.xchng – The leading free stock photo site
• rgbstock.com  – Another free stock photo site
• tineye.com – Reverse image search: a helpful tool for finding the source of an image when you want to ask permission to use it (the artists I have asked have all appreciated the compliment and cheerfully given permission)
• Wikipedia: Public domain image resources – An exhaustive list of public domain image sources
• everystockphoto  – A license-free stock photo search engine (added 9/7/11—thanks, Winn!)

If you use others, please share! Also, I still have some confusion about the copyright implications of using the following. If you happen to know (or know someone who would know) the law regarding the use of these items on a blog with ads, please let me know:

• Image of an album/dvd/book/magazine cover
• Image of a movie poster or playbill
• Image of an advertisement
• Screenshot from a movie or television program

Image: TilarX