If I want to use photos on the internet do I have to pay the photographers?

[ellacott]

Or do they just need to be cited. I've some ideas about some of the picture I seen during this campaign. I want to put something together but I don't want to be sued.

[jflood1016]

1. A photograph is copywrited

Just like a song, painting, or any other art work.

[Why Syzygy]

2. Are you going to use

them for commercial purposes? Make a profit? That would be illegal. To use them in another work, most stock photos are fair use.

[ellacott]

3. I didn't want to make a profit

I want to make a coffee table type book but I'm not looking for a profit.

[anigbrowl]

10. Well, it depends

If you want to sell the book, then most definitely you need permission and may have to pay (but in return you'll get original very high-resolution images). On the other hand, if you want to use something like Amazon's book-printing service to make a book for yourself and possibly a few family or friends (basically you upload a pdf, pay a few bucks, and it gets printed, bound and sent to you) then I wouldn't worry about it.

[ellacott]

11. I wanted to do a photo book on the inspirational images from this campaign

And give them away to people.

[anigbrowl]

17. Then it dpeends on how many people

Less than 25 or so, and nobody will much care - technically you should ask permission but pragmatically that's like a scrapbooking project. If you want to print hundreds or more of them, then you'd probably definitely need clearance.

In that case, please reconsider the 'give them away' idea. It's going to cost you money to print it, and significant time just to put everything together, you may need an assistant. If you want to reach more than a small number of people, then it becomes expensive (eg for reasons of copyright). Go to Amazon and get an idea of your production costs. You might be better off asking for releases and making it for sale on Amazon (in the process, inspiring a lot more people) and just buying some free copies for your immediate social circle.

[ellacott]

19. Thank you very much

You have given me a lot to consider. I will go to Amazon and get an idea on the production costs.

[Ms. Toad]

9. Most stock photos are NOT fair use

Fair use depends on how you use the photographs - not on the kind of photographs they are. Fair use is not clear cut, so if you do not have permission you are risking being on the losing side of a legal battle over use of someone else's property.

[unpossibles]

4. This is what I do for a living, license photos

you need to get permission from the photographer, or the agency which represents the photographer, such as AP or whomever. Most will charge, some won't, but you should always ask the owner even if using for not-for-profit type of thing. "Fair Use" is a legal gray area, where one can use part of a work of art or other copyrighted work as long as it is for critique or satire, but is often decided in court on a case by case basis. It's still better to ask permission.

[Ms. Toad]

6. Thank you. n/t

[ellacott]

7. Thank you very much

[Why Syzygy]

14. Thanks.

[Ms. Toad]

5. The rights to the photo

are owned by the photographer, the photographer's employer, or whoever the photographer assigned the rights to. You need permission from the owner of the rights. The owner may or may not require payment - but you need to have permission.

(If the photograph includes identifiable people, in some instances you also need the consent of the people in the photograph.)

[ellacott]

8. Thank you so much, I didn't know that you had to get permission

from people in the photograph.

I guess this won't be as easy as I thought. :)

[TreasonousBastard]

18. That could be more important than...

getting rights to the photo itself, although the original photographer might have had release forms signed and they could apply to you if you get permission to use the images.

The rule, unless it's changed since I did this sort of thing, is that pretty much anything or anyone identifiable has to be released unless it's a "news" photo or some sort of readily identifiable landmark. If you're making a book out of someone else's pictures, you better make sure all the releases and permissions are in order, or hope you don't get caught.

Look up "model release" for more details.

[ellacott]

20. Thank you very much

I've noticed on some reality tv shows that they have faces blurred out. I guess this is because they didn't have a release.

I will look up "model release".

[4lbs]

12. Why not create your own "coffee table" blog/website on Blogger and then give out your link?

It might be easier.

[ellacott]

13. That's an idea

Do I still have to get the permission of the photographers for that? Or do I just have to provide a link?

[jimbot]

15. Other forms of photos

I use a good deal of stock photography in presentations that I give.
Other than my own photos, my two favorite sources are:
Flickr Creative Commons: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
istockphoto: http://www.istockphoto.com/
For Flickr CC, the basic premise is that you must provide attribution, but the details of the various licenses are provided on the site.
For istockphoto, you actually purchase the rights to the photos at an incredibly affordable price (prices vary by resolution and photo but a medium res, good detail photo will generally be a couple of dollars.

I recommend both sites and between the two, I seldom need to go elsewhere for photos.
Peace,
--JT

[ellacott]

16. Thank you very much

I will definately consider those sites. :)

[ellacott]

21. This is an example of the pictures I want to use

I saw this on this board. I don't know who the photographer is or who the identity of the little boy.

Maybe I'll taker the other poster, SurferBoy's advice and just consider getting a blog and give out the link.