I’ll be speaking on a panel this summer at Inman Bloggers Connect entitled, “Blogging Pitfalls: How NOT to Get Sued“. We’ll be talking about stuff like slander, NAR’s code of ethics, RESPA and more. But the most common mistake I see most bloggers make is to steal photos from other people’s sights. I’m using “steal” for effect. A more proper term might be copyright infringement. But when it happens to me, I consider the offender to be a thief, and most content creators would agree.

The other side of the coin is that many bloggers don’t realize they’re doing anything wrong. Here are some examples of content theft.

Taking a picture from a web site that displays a © symbol, or even says copyright on it.

You can’t republish this picture without the written consent of it’s creator. Crediting them, or linking back to them is not enough. You can only republish with their permission.

Taking a picture from a site that works under a Creative Commons license.

There are some exceptions, but for the most part, you can’t do this either. Creative Commons licenses give others the right to use and share the content in question, but you have to look at the conditions. Most will not allow you to use the work for commercial purposes. A business blog is definitely a commercial purpose.

Also, they often have a “Share and Share Alike” clause. This means you can’t modify it (like resizing it to fit on your blog) unless you allow others to use it as well. If you’re protecting your own content under copyright, then you can’t use it.

Tacking pictures that display no mention of copyright, or creative commons.

This is the one that fouls most people up. Copyright is implied. It’s not the creator’s obligation to tell you, it’s your responsibility to find out otherwise.

That doesn’t leave much left right? Deservedly so. Other’s worked to create that content, and if they don’t want to share, you’re out of luck. My advice is to get yourself a camera, or seek out photos that are specifically in the public domain. While performing an advanced search on Flickr, you can find pictures that are ok for commercial use. Some photographers just like to see their work “up in lights”, and offer them for any use. Others might agree, if you simply ask.

I realize that plenty who read this might figure they’ll never get caught, but why risk it? Your reputation is far more important than the upside of placing a pretty picture on you site without permission.