August 1, 2005:
Is it ever okay to "borrow" a photo from
another website and use it? I saw a photo that I need on another
site.
- Dan W., [removed]@comcast.com
I'm sure you already know the answer to this one,
but the answer is no. Photograph copyrights belong to the person
who took the photograph, as well as the site using it. In addition,
it's an amateurish mistake to make -- if you get caught, the
site owning the copyright can press charges against you too.
There are numerous reasonably-priced collections of royalty-free
images -- once you purchase a collection, you can use all of
the included images in whatever you like, as you've paid for
the right to do so. You can also purchase on an image-by-image
basis from sites like Corbis
and Getty Photodisc.
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Ask The Webmaster is written biweekly by Jill
Cataldo, Senior Web Developer for NewRamp.com. She has been
working in web development since 1996. Articles are copyright
©2005 NewRamp and may not be reproduced without permission.
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