Generally, with a Creative Commons licence, public users of a website are allowed to use the website’s photos and images freely.
If you are a publisher or blogger and you use a website’s images, you may think that you are using them correctly. However, you may be unaware of some possible infringements that you might be committing because a photo or image licenced under a Creative Commons licence does not necessarily mean that you have the right to use the photo. While many photos or images look legally safe, it is often difficult for publishers to differentiate between what is actually safe and what is not. If you want to know where you can download free stock images, visit this website for a stock photo list of free agencies.
There are also different types of Creative Commons licences, whereby each of them permits public users to use the relevant copyright works to different degrees. You may read “What is a Creative Commons licence?” for details about the various types of Creative Commons licences. For instance, a CC0 public domain licence entails that the creator of the work has waived all their copyrights and publishers can use the content without crediting the author. However, the publishers may not know whether the creator is aware of the limitations of uploading the photos or images with the CC0 licence. This is because the creators of the work need to ensure that the subjects (e.g. brands, people or properties) in their photos are also protected by copyright law and that consent has been obtained from these subjects for the photo to be released to the public. Hence, whilst the photo’s author can release the photo with a CC0 licence, they may not be entitled to do the same in relation to the subjects in their work.
Key takeaways
- Generally, you are allowed to use a website’s photos and images freely if it has a Creative Commons licence.
- However, if you are a publisher or blogger, you may be unaware of some possible infringements that you might be committing because different types of Creative Commons licence permit public users to use the relevant copyright works to different degrees.
- Hence, you should download free stock images or check thoroughly before using the images or photos.