Image duplication

Hai

In my site, I have used photos, just like other sites.

But I have received a mail from a competitor site that i have used their copy righted image on my site. So i have removed it now.

But initially when developing the site, what I did was, searched for the keyword in Google images and downloaded the relevant images, resized, renamed and uploaded to my server and was using it.

My doubt now is, can't we do like this? How can we know that it is a copy-righted image or not?

Please help, all relevant suggestions needed.

Thanks

Most images will have some sort of copyright protection, and simply swiping an image off another site is considered copyright infringement (aka illegal) by many. I'd recommend a) when you find an image, contact the owner and ask if you can use it b) find images that allow you to use them through a Creative Commons License c) purchase royalty free licenses through a micro-stock photography company (these can be ridiculously cheep)

Product pictures are usually easily acquired at no fee from manufacturers.

definately use a stock photo company for your images. $1-$2 for an unlimited license on website sized images is the norm.
www.istockphoto.com
www.jupiterimages.com
www.gettyimages.com

and many many more. It really depends on the type of image it is as to where you should look for it...

no one can really solve the problem in copying image on the net except with the ones uploading it...the only is to program there site to prevent copying their image for like example, disabling the right click button on all the images...

Once you put an image on the web it really doesn't matter. If you disable right click, I will just use a screenshot to get the image, or find its url.

the best way IMO is to use a "watermark" but even that can be beat by a determined image thief.

Bottom line is most of your images are safe, if you do find someone copying send an email or letter (usually works as we see from the first post). Secondly DONT COPY IMAGES. There are so many resources for free/cheap images that it is completely unnecessary.

thanks googler for clearing out things...btw, I was just giving out of an example of it...

Do a search for “free photos” and “royalty-free photos” and you’ll find some resources. Also buying cheap stock photos online or on CD is another way to build up your image library.

The suggestions were all useful. Thank you all, for participating and helping my doubt.

If you shoot one picture and post that in your website. Now thats something you have all the copyrights and i think most of the people wont like others using the same for their own benefit. So its quite natural that someone who finds his/her image being used by your website contacts you and asks the image to be pulled off..

The best solution, i suggest would be to have your own content team and build content that no one can raise any issue. If not possible , there are lots of photo sharing sites like istockphoto.com, gettyimages.com which sells off their images for a normal fee.


Best of luck with your photo site