Using a copyrighted photo on one’s blog could earn a blogger a message from photo agencies, offering a sales pitch or requesting the offender’s presence in court.
Sites that repost images owned by photo agencies could find themselves facing the full legal force of businesses like Getty Images and Corbis. A Wall Street Journal report cited how the firms have turned to tracking software to locate watermarked images used inappropriately online.
Once discovered, the agencies generally try approaches like sales pitches first. Corbis was noted in the article as having recovered about $1 million via lawsuits and demand letters, but made even more by converting offending users into customers.
Getty hasn’t been quite so aggressive in seeking customers, preferring to limit its subscription offers to what it thinks are legitimate businesses. The growth of blogging and its popularity may cause the company to rethink its eligibility requirements. As to lawsuits, Getty hasn’t filed one in “at least four years.”
Fair use comes into play with some image usage online. The Journal noted one intellectual property lawyer’s opinion on the matter:
“The biggest issue is, what is the purpose of the site? Is it nonprofit or educational?” says Robert Gerstein, an intellectual-property lawyer at Marshall, Gerstein & Borun LLP in Chicago. “If one photo appears on somebody’s blog and the purpose is that they’re going to criticize or comment on the photo itself, that might be fair use. If they’re doing it for some other reason, they’d have a difficult time arguing it’s fair use.”
David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
