I had heard of people getting in trouble for using photos on their blogs/sites, but you think when you find it on Google or such, it's ok - right? Wrong. You can still get in trouble and even be sued over it.
"Well on one random post, I grabbed one random picture off of google and then a few weeks later I got contacted by the photographer who owned that photo. He sent me a takedown notice, which I responded to immediately because I felt awful that I had unknowingly used a copyrighted pic. The pic was down within minutes. But that wasn't going to cut it. He wanted compensation for the pic. A significant chunk of money that I couldn't afford. I'm not going to go into the details but know that it was a lot of stress, lawyers had to get involved, and I had to pay money that I didn't have for a use of a photo I didn't need." - RoniI recently saw a link someone had retweeted on Twitter, to help others learn and be more cautious. I felt so bad for the woman and right away, took the few pictures down off my blog (and on my Facebook - will be doing Pinterest next) that I did not take myself. I even changed my blog header. I had a picture of pandas on it, but even the owner of those pictures could find out and get angry.
A lot of people have their opinions about it. Some think it's insane and ignore it, while others - like the woman who this happened to - would rather be safe than sorry. Well, I'm going the "safe than sorry" road, too.
Her story can be found here, for those interested: roniloren.com. I really recommended all bloggers reading it. There's some good tips on how to keep yourself protected.
"So lesson learned: protect yourself and respect the rights of other artists."
