Creative Commons and Liability

Dear Readers,

So this isn't exactly on the topic of books, but it is a serious issue that I came across in my nightly internet excursion (I can’t help it, I’m an insomniac), and I feel it is a topic that affects probably 99.7% of us bloggers, and that is the issue of Copyright. Many of us post dozens of pictures on our blogs and almost none of the time do we ever seek permission to use these images, let alone credit the people who have put a lot of time and effort into them.But do many of you know that by doing this you are violating copyright laws and could potentially be sued?

I came across the story of Roni Loren, who used a picture on one of her blog posts and was sued for compensation. Her story can be found Here.

 

I know it seems ridiculous that just for posting a picture on your blog you can be sued, but how would you feel if it was your picture and someone had taken it without asking or even giving credit? 

Yes I agree that the likelihood of being ‘caught’ using copyrighted images is very small, as almost the whole world does it... All you have to do is look at your facebook feed to see dozens of pictures and videos posted almost all without the owner’s consent (hell I know I do it). But  it’s not impossible. 

This doesn’t mean to say that you can’t use pictures on your blog...but be safe about it. Use sites like flickr creative commons in which uploaders have expressed that people can use their images how they would like as long as they link back to them in some way. Obviously I would be less worried about using pictures of celebrities on blogs for things such as ‘My book boyfriend’ as celebrity images are constantly duplicated and used without permission (or an alternative would be posting links to the dreamy pictures of your book boyfriend). But when it comes to less common images and personal photography exercise caution, because I would hate to see this happen to anyone.

With Love,

Elle