One of the most important things to be aware of when you’re creating journalism on the internet is copyright. It’s very hard to make money as a creative professional in the modern world, so it’s understandable that anyone who is able to create something with value wants to protect that value in every way they can.
The main way we interact with copyright at Voice Magazine is in terms of the images we use to illustrate our articles. Our house rules clearly state that you should not use any content on the site you don’t have permission to use and that very much applies to images. Your brilliant writing is the lifeblood of this website but, if it’s got a copyright-infringing image attached to it, we have to take it down immediately.
That’s all quite scary-sounding, but it’s actually very easy to avoid breaking copyright rules, as long as you’re vigilant about it. In fact, there’s only one rule you really need to know: start with the assumption that you can’t use an image.
Obviously, we know the impulse. You’ve just written a great piece about Billie Eilish’s new album and you want a picture of her to go along with it. The most obvious thing to do is to hop over to Google Images and stick her name in the search bar. Immediately, you’ll get millions of great pictures. Unfortunately, you can’t just save your favourite one and upload it. The chances are that it was taken by a photographer who will either own the copyright themselves or work for a photo agency.
This arrangement is vital to the creative industries. This copyright protection ensures that photographers can make money from their excellent work, turning the job they love into a career that pays the bills. They spend hours in the rain on red carpets for a glimpse of a famous face and, having done that a few times myself as a journalist, I can tell you that it’s not as glamorous as you might think.
So how do you know which photos you actually can use? The best way to find one is to go to a trusted source. You should immediately avoid any photos that come from the following places: Getty, Shutterstock, Alamy, Reuters, Press Association (PA), iStock, and Associated Press (AP). These are simply not available to be used on Voice.
Instead of these high-profile agencies, your best port of call is a free-to-use stock service such as Pixabay. This service is great for generic stock images that you can use for most articles.
However, this won’t be much use if you need a picture of a real person. In this case, your first port of call should be Wikimedia Commons. These are the pictures used on Wikipedia and, therefore, they are usually available to be used elsewhere. It’s still important, though, to check the individual licence on each image, as some have restrictions on how or where the photos can be used.
Alternatively, you can use certain images uploaded to Flickr – look for those made available under a “creative commons licence”. For example, the amazing US photographer Gage Skidmore has made thousands of excellent pictures of movie stars and politicians available for everyone to use. If you’re after a photo of a big star, there’s a good chance he’s taken one at some point.
But what about reviews? Obviously, we spend a lot of time writing about films, TV shows, theatre, and more. In those cases, check to see if those works have a press kit of images designed to be used to promote them. Again, you cannot simply Google them and trust that all of the images available there are usable. They could be posters commissioned for a specific purpose or images provided exclusively to one particular outlet. If in doubt, contact Voice Editor Tom Beasley and he will be able to advise you.
As a user-generated platform here at Voice, we place a lot of trust in you as users to follow best practice when it comes to image copyright. If in doubt, remember the main rule we mentioned earlier: start with the assumption that you can’t use an image.
0 Comments