Can I use images from Google on my Blog?

The short answer is No! But, there is always a way out for everything and so you can too use images from Google on your Blog. Check out this article till the end and you will discover the process as to how you can use images from Google.

Just because you take an image from Google, does not mean that it is your property and you can use it anywhere you want. You just can’t take any image from Google and use it on your blog. Since companies are having copyright on the images they posted on the internet, and therefore they charge you a fee to use their images.

So, it is always recommended that whenever you take images from the Internet, find out whether an image is having a copyright or not, and you are legally allowed to use it on your blog.

Even in most cases, if you are using a free image, you still have to disclose the source of the image and who created it.

What is Copyright?

Copyright refers to the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. In simpler terms, copyright is the right to copy. This means that the original creators of products and anyone they give authorization to are the only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the work.

Copyright is defined as “The exclusive legal right, given to an originator or an assignee to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material, and to authorize others to do the same.”. In normal terms, when you create original media – be it a play or a piece of art or a song – you have the right to tell anyone to not use it if you don’t want to. If they do, without your express permission, you are liable to be sued.

Copyright law gives creators of original material the exclusive right to further use and duplicate that material for a given amount of time, at which point the copyrighted item becomes public domain.

Fair Use

Fair use is a legal doctrine that promotes freedom of expression by permitting the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. Section 107 of the Copyright Act provides the statutory framework for determining whether something is fair use and identifies certain types of uses—such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research—as examples of activities that may qualify as fair use.  Section 107 calls for consideration of the following four factors in evaluating a question of fair use:

(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes;

(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;

(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used with the copyrighted work as a whole; and

(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Source: www.copyright.gov

Different types of legal images

You will find different types of images on the internet, let’s check a brief definition of them.

Royalty-free images

Royalty-free images are not free actually, as the name suggests. Though you can use a royalty-free image for fair use, you are not allowed to edit or resell it.

Public domain images

Public domain images have no restrictions at all and you don’t need to ask for any permission before using them. Although it’s general consent you provide attribution, but not mandatory.

Creative Commons Licenses

Images have been granted access by the creator. But in most cases, you will need to provide attribution to the creator.

Rights Managed images

You need to purchase a single-user license for the particular image, but you can’t use that image more than once. For example, if you use one of these images in your blog, you can’t then use the same image in your YouTube video. You need to purchase an additional license for the same.

The right way to use images from Google on my Blog

You can follow the below Step by Step procedure to use images from Google, without any legal hassle.

Step 1: Go to “www.Google.com”, and then click “Images” on the top right of the screen.

Step 2: Type what you would like to search, in the search bar and click “Enter”.

Step 3: You will get a mixture of copyright and common license images, so you have to sort them out accordingly. To do that, click on “Tools” and go to the “User Rights” and then select “Creative Commons Licenses”.

Step 4: Now, whatever images come on your screen is under “Creative Commons Licenses”, and you can use any of them without any hassle.

Free Stock Images

You can alternatively check the following websites, wherein thousands and thousands of free images you will get.

Pixabay

Pexels

Unsplash

Gratisography

Read this article for more update – 10 Free Stock Photo Websites That Don’t Suck

Paid Stock Images

Also, if you are looking for a paid website, from where you can purchase quality images. You can sign-up with Shutterstock. Click here for the official website of Shutterstock.

Thanks for reading the article!