IMAGE COPYRIGHT
How do you protect your images online? Joshua Waller explains everything you need to know about image copyright
How do you manage your images, and protect your copyright? Copyright is designed to protect your work so that you control who uses your images and, where applicable, get paid for your work. It’s worth noting that whilst copyright laws vary from country to country, this guide should still apply to most countries.
Image copyright is to do with the legal ownership of the image or photo, and it’s safe to assume that every image you see online is copyrighted, unless otherwise stated! The person who has created the image owns the rights to copy or reproduce the image, and this is something that comes with every image, whether the image has been registered with a copyright office or organisation.
1 How can you find out if someone is infringing your copyright?
You can use Google Images for reverse image search. This example image is from Unsplash, and as such, has been (legally) used on a number of different websites. Copyright infringement is when your images or work are used without permission; to see if your images are being used by other people online, you can use something called a ‘reverse image search’ to see if the same image has been posted on other websites. To use reverse image search to find copied images, go to Google Images (images.google.com) and upload your image. Google will search the internet to see where the image appears and from here, you’ll be able to see if it’s on other people’s websites.
2 What to do if you find your image being used by other people online
Contact the website (have a look for a ‘Contact us’ or ‘About us’ page) to ask them to remove the image. They may be unaware of copyright laws or been given bad advice such as ‘simply use Google image search to find some images’. If you don’t receive a response, there are additional steps you can take, such as contacting the hosting company, or site where the images are being used. For example, if they’re being used on Facebook or other social media site then you can raise a complaint. If someone uses your image without permission, even if they subsequently take it down, you can still pursue them for payment.
3 Mediation and court options
If you make money from your photos, and feel you are losing out due to people using your images without compensating you, then you could also look into mediation, if the advice in box 2 (see left) is unsuccessful. However, you may decide it’s not worth the time (and money). If you’re in the UK, then the IPO (Intellectual Property Office) offers this service: Intellectual property mediation – GOV.UK. Depending on where you live, it’s likely there will be a similar service in your country.
