If you are looking for photographic material to integrate it into your website, it is recommended that you do not use lightly the photos resulting from a Google search, since many of them are protected by copyright and subject to certain conditions and payment of fees..
The rights of use are established through licenses. If you want to avoid the long process of checking which licenses each of the images you select is subject to, it is convenient to resort to one of the many free image banks available on the Internet, which in addition to free material, also put royalty-free photos are available to users, the use of which is subject to few or no restrictions.
The role of licenses is to define the rights of use of the works, be it images, musical pieces or videos. The violation of the conditions of use may result in legal consequences and therefore should be avoided at all costs..
In general, royalty-free images offer a lot of room for maneuver. An image subject to a free license will be called? Free? or? royalty free ?. The term? Royalty-free images? is somewhat misleading, as these are also licensed, only free. However, in everyday language this name has been established for photographic material subject to free licenses.
The most common free licenses are Creative Commons (CC). The non-profit organization makes 7 different types of licenses available to those interested. The images subject to the CC0 license are very popular, as the license does not contain any kind of restrictions regarding the use of the works. The material that is included in this license can be used for commercial purposes and can also be modified or altered in its entirety without naming the author. For more detailed information on CC licenses, click here..
On the Internet you can find some free image banks offering images subject to the CCO license . In addition to photographs or illustrations, these types of pages also offer vector graphics and icons, which are ideal options for web design. Here is a detailed list of the most popular platforms that offer CCO licensed images:
The platforms discussed above are distinguished as free image banks that mainly offer photos under the CC0 license . To avoid unnecessary risks, before proceeding to download the files, it is convenient to check which license is applicable to each one of the images.
Special attention must be paid to the licenses to which photos are subject when using image files or files from agencies that also offer artwork subject to CC0 or other licenses . In this case, the terms of use and the FAQ are usually helpful.
In addition to CC0 licensed images, it is worth the effort to search for photos and graphics with other licenses, which will lead to a much larger selection of possibilities. The following platforms offer images and graphics with various free licenses :
The web pages listed above only make up a small part of all the free image bank options that can be accessed for royalty free images. The popularity of free licenses has grown steadily in recent years. Consequently, new royalty-free photos and platforms to host them emerge every day.
The use of these images nationally and internationally may present some differences that it will be better to clarify before making use of them. To do this, you can turn to legal professionals and visit the pages of the corresponding platforms to learn more about their conditions of use and the licenses around which their images are published.
Only when you take the photo can you be completely sure who the author of it is. Even though there are some photo agencies and image databases that give the impression that they can be trusted, when you want to use someone else's photo for personal purposes, you should check each of the details it contains . However, mistakes happen all the time no matter if it is a small photo blog or a large stock photo agency or even an image is placed in a database.
If you are not sure about a photo, it is best not to use it. As long as photo usage restrictions are met, a wide selection of free images can be accessed on the internet.