using a picture in a blog

<p>Hello,<br>

A colleague of mine created a blog style website about celebrities. she used a few pictures from a popular website similar to TMZ (copy and pasted). He was wondering if he needed to get permission? is there a stock photo site to use?</p>

<p>thank you<br>

david</p>

<p>Positively! She MUST license the photo to use it, even in a blog. There are no exceptions to this.</p>

<p>There are free/low cost photo houses that she can look at:</p>

<p>- iStock (My favorite and they use images from Getty however this is not free)<br>

- PicApp<br>

- FreeFoto<br>

- stock.echng</p>

<p>I'm sure that there are many others. </p>

<blockquote>

<p>There are no exceptions to this.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Well, actually there are. If the use meets the standards of "fair use" under the pursuant Copyright Act and associated case law.</p>

<p>Meanwhile the 'colleague' needs to familiarize themselves with the law. Here's somewhere to start... http://www.copyright.gov/</p>

<p>thank you for your responses.<br>

I understand the "colleague " reference. it was actually someones teenage daughter and he just wanted to make sure.<br>

I will tell her to check those sites.<br>

I do not know if it matters it is not set up to produce income.</p>

<p>david</p>

<p>David:<br /><br />Remember a while back when it was all over the media where people got letters from the RIAA demanding payments for downloaded music or the people that downloaded music without paying for it would be taken to court by the RIAA? I'd venture to guess that close to all of those people got zero income from the music they downloaded. In the cases that did go to court many were still held liable and a few faced huge payments for a few downloaded songs.<br /><br />This is the same thing. Maybe if the teenager simply write the photographers and ask permission before using their images some of them might be ok with it and give their permission. The photographers that make these images likely make their living doing this and when people use their images without paying that just isn't right.<br /><br />This doesn't mean I'm all for the RIAA or the paparazzi by the way. I don't think I'll ever understand the need for yet another million snaps of Paris, Lindsey, Tara and the rest of the ThinkTank doing whatever it is they do all day long. Doesn't mean I don't respect the photographers making these images though, and their right to be compensated when their work is being used.</p>

<p>Whether it produces income is relevant, both to the question of fair use, and also to the extent of the damages owed to the copyright holder if her use constitutes infringement. But many people incorrectly assume that the lack of a profit motive (or lack of actual profit) justifies infringement or makes an infringing act legal. Not collecting revenue from the use of a work owned by someone else does not automatically make that use safe. </p>

<p>thank you guys. I was pretty sure of the answer i just wanted to find out for sure.</p>

<p>I told the parent so they can research and check out the sites given by barry.</p>

<p>thanks again for the time</p>