Don’t Steal Art
Don’t Steal Art
By Justin Hall
You have written the perfect blog post. All you need now is art to make it pop. You type in a keyword for the perfect image, and save as onto your computer. Now all you have to do is load the image onto your post and all is good…right?
Well…no, that is STEALING, copyright theft to be exact.
What! Me steal? I’m not a thief! It’s on the internet. Everyone can use images on Google…right?
Not all images. A common belief is that images from the internet are free to use. They are not. All images came from somewhere. Someone photographed, drew, or illustrated the image you want to use. They had to develop their skills to create the image. The artist deserves to be recognized and compensated for their work. The good news is there are free and low cost images you can use to illustrate your work. You will have to do a little extra work to find and use them.
Is it really a big deal?
You might be thinking that no one will really care if you use someone else’s image; your blog is too small for anyone to notice. Or, you might think that everyone else is “borrowing” art; it will be fine. Though it is true that the internet has made stealing art easier than ever, when art is used without permission it takes away content creators control over their work. This can diminish their personal brand and ability to make money. Copyright theft doesn’t just affect the artist’s ability to make money. Andromeda Rex described what it is like when they deal with copyright theft.
“There’s a mix of emotions with it. It hurts because of the amount of time that goes into creating these things, and often those who steal the art to claim they made it want to belittle it at the same time for some reason. I find it reposted a lot with either comments like, “This one wasn’t that hard to make,” or the other end of the scale where they say things like, “Sorry this one isn’t that good, I’m learning.” The kind of comments to try to get more attention and the praise they want.”
Andromeda Rex
If you are caught using someone’s work, your own content and brand can be tarnished. Rumors on the internet can spread quickly. Once you find out, you might not have a chance to do damage control. Šarūnė Bar on Boredpanda.com has provided reference to 84 times individuals and major corporations have comminited copyright theft. Big name companies like Disney and Ford might have enough layers to fight lawsuits, you probably don’t.
What exactly is Copyright?
Copyright law was established within the constitution to protect works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, paintings, illustrations, photography, etc. It protects content creators rights to manage their creative endeavors as they see fit. Without the content creators permission, no one can sell, modify, or distribute their work. For more information, check out copyright.gov and their FAQ page.
A content creator’s art is protected by copyright law. Using someone else’s work without permission is copyright theft. Copyright theft is the use and distribution of original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works. This can leave you open to a lawsuit and having to pay damages to the original creator. The damages range from $200 to $150,000 for each work infringed. Infringers will also pay for all attorneys fees and court costs.
How to find art to use
You have decided against using just any piece of art you find on the internet. You don’t want to violate anyone’s copyright. Now it is time to look for art you can legally and ethically use. Where do you start? Well, Google, but there are a few extra steps.
When you do a search for images on Google, there is an option to restrict your search by usage rights.
Step 1: Google image search using keywords for the pic you want.
Step 2: Under the search bar click tools. A drop down menu will open up.
Step 3: Click Creative Commons licenses, then select for your needs.
Clicking “All” provides all images despite licenses.
Clicking “Creative Commons licenses” provide images that are under a Creative Commons license.
Clicking “Commercial & other licenses provide images that are pay to use.
Step 4: Click on an Image. Google will open up a window with the picture and a link to where the link is from. Click on the link. There you will find out how to download the image and what are the usage rights to use the image.
Now you have cheep and low cost images to use for your blog post.
There are other sites to look for free and low cost art to use. For additional information, check out ComputerHope.com’s blog post on free public domain images. Also, TechGumbo made a youtube video on sites that provide free stock photos.
Stealing art is all to common now in the days of the internet. Not only can random people download and use your art easily without permission but you also have to be careful were you post it. Sites like DeviantArt actually have full rights to your art if you post it on their site and can sell if for profit.
Very informative post! This is so important for people to know. That Google search tip is great because I can’t always find what I am looking for on the few fair use sites I can remember.
I think nowadays, internet could be used for good and bad. It has become so easy that anyone can steal any type of work from google which is very wrong. The people who has put so much effort to get their work done are now being used for different purposes. If you want an image, there are few websites which can use them legally in your work and if you are citing someone else art/work you have to give credit to the authors. And it is very true that if you get caught, then your work can tarnished and you will have to pay big amount of money.
Nice post!
You really make us stop and think about giving credit to people when it comes to their art. I mean if you are writing a paper, you are supposed to cite your sources. I believe the same should apply to art. When I am in doubt, I always use images that are copyright free. Sometimes I still feel bad for using these kinds of images because I know that some creative genius is behind them. Also, major kudos for outlining the filtering option on a Google image search. You would be amazed at how many people don’t know about that.
I am so glad you wrote about this. I have a question: I always do as you suggested–I go to Google Images, I click on “Tools” and choose “Creative Commons license”, but do I still need to cite the source in my document? I never use an image unless it’s labeled “Creative Commons” but I usually don’t cite it–am I messing up here?
vpitts, that is a great question. Do you still need to cite the source in my document? The answer is, it depends. Creative Commons license has a lot of caveats that the owner can give when they apply the licenses. If you go to the cite, there should be a CC agreement. Some will say you can use it how ever you want. Others will say make sure to give attributions. Others will say don’t sell it.
This is a blog post all of its own. Here is a link that can provide clarification https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Nice post. It’s a common issue I see pop up online with artists. I’ve also seen more people becoming aware of crediting the artist when sharing art, but of course many more people either don’t know or don’t care.
I had no idea about the Google Images tool you pointed out to find creative common license photos. Thanks for pointing it out.
This is very informative. I think back on images I’ve used in the past and I’m pretty sure I didn’t use the creative commons licenses. Thanks for this information this is something I will start to use.
Very informative post. I can tell you are very passionate about this subject. There were some really great tips there too about ways to find royalty free art to use. This post would have been great in the first week of the blog project, as this subject seems to have caused quite the confusion with all of us ‘bloggers’.
A great way to have wrapped this subject matter us, even if it was just a one-liner, would have been to say something like, “Remember – Don’t Steal Art!” Referencing this back to your title would have been very strong. Just a tip- this was a great article and I really enjoyed it, just as it is. Thanks for sharing!
Re-posted from earlier. Somehow I was logged in as a different user, so I reposted under this user ID.