Filtering Google Image Search by Copyright License

by | May 27, 2014 | Blogging, Images, Photographs

What I’m currently reading:  Deceived by Randy Wayne White

If you’re a blogger, you may use images you find on the web for your posts. The correct way to do this is either using pictures you’ve licensed, or those that don’t require a specific license for re-use. I use a lot of Flickr Creative Commons images, and they have always worked well for me.

But the Flickr search mechanism, IMHO, isn’t as good as the one provided by Google. So I was pleasantly surprised to learn over the weekend that Google Images has made it easier to search for images with specific copyright licenses. (Thank you Rocking Self Publishing Podcast episode #47)

So I decided to perform a test, but before I do a quick story.

When I grew up we had a beautiful Maple tree in the backyard of our house. That tree not only served as my instructor for tree climbing but also helped to teach me how much fun hard work could be. It did that by dropping it’s leaves each fall. Seriously, what kid doesn’t love jumping into a freshly raked pile of leaves.

I shared that quick story only to explain the rationale for selecting “Maple Tree” as my search term.

To run this search I took the following steps:

1. Go to Google Images

2. Select Search Tools, which brings up a secondary menu

3. Select Usage Rights

Screen Shot 2014-05-27 at 3.58.46 PM

 

In my case, I selected “Labeled for non-commercial reuse” and clicked (more…)

Getty Images has made many of their photographs free to use

by | Mar 8, 2014 | Images

The Getty Images website, the home of over a hundred years of photography, is now offering the ability to embed images at no cost.  The process is as simple as embedding a youtube video into a website.

Most web content producers have learned that finding images that can be used legally on a website, is not easy, or cheap. However, some don’t care and just use Google Images for whatever they need, without realizing that using those images creates a copyright violation.

This ‘no cost embed’ news from Getty Images, can help to avoid these copyright issues.

As you can see from the image below, which was embedded from the Getty site, they post a notification, and a link, to where you actually found the image.  The photographer also receives credit for the image.  A small price to pay, to avoid breaking the law or licensing the content.

This is an interesting development, and it may be one that will spread to other image providers.

You can get more information on the program here.

HT to @JamiGold for the news on this item.