Copyrighted Graphic

[Silverwire]

Maybe I'm naive in this day and age of easy digital copying and should not worry about this, but my conscience is itching.

I downloaded a jpg a while back off google and it does have a copyright symbol on it (which I cropped off not to hide it, but because I did not need that part of picture). I now want to use it on my website, and have no idea what the original source of the picture was or how to contact the owner. I did try to search google again for it, but gave up after a considerable amount of time.

I suppose some will tell me not to use the picture at all, and some will tell me not to worry because the chances for it being discovered by the copyright owner are slim. The picture is perfect for my purpose, and I have not found nothing else that is a satisfactory substitute. I guess my question is what are my risks?

1) What is the going rate or range for royalty to use a jpg on a homepage that gets about 100 visitors per day?

2) What are the possible penalties? Or is a C&D the most likely response?

I know this is not really a domain legal issue, but I thought I'd get a better answer here than in the Development sub-forum.

 

[D4_Media]

personally i wouldnt worry about it. the chances that someone would have visited both your site and the person who owns the copyright to the picture is very slim. if its good i'd use it . But on the otherhand if someone notices then you could be in some pretty nasty trouble .

 

[mole]

Originally posted by D4_Media
personally i wouldnt worry about it. the chances that someone would have visited both your site and the person who owns the copyright to the picture is very slim. if its good i'd use it . But on the otherhand if someone notices then you could be in some pretty nasty trouble .

Nasty trouble. Nah, just claim you thought it was in public domain and someone else swiped the graphic from which you took it and pull the image out prompto.

For serious commercial ventures, a web-publisher should have the bucks to pay for legit usage of all graphics. These can be pretty expensive to the casual webmaster.

For a great collection, goto

http://www.gettyimages.com

For great flash movies, goto

http://www.bigshotmedia.com

 

[dkny]

most of the time, the original owner will ask you to remove it from the website before they file a lawsuit. They don't want to spend time/money for this little thing either.

 

Originally posted by mole
For a great collection, goto

http://www.gettyimages.com

For great flash movies, goto

http://www.bigshotmedia.com

Hello mole!

These sites are really great. Especially, I loved the second one. I have been looking for this kind of professional image sites on the net for a long time. I would be pleased if you can provide me some more links like them.

Thanks.

 

[mole]

Hey, no probs zeo. But those images can be a bit pricey particularly those rights managed ones. One flash movie alone cost me $150 :sad:

I also buy from http://www.comstock.com. Pretty reasonable pricing at about $30 per image.

 

Thank you again