That was the opening threat in an email sent from a lawyer in a European
country in reference to an image I used in a blog post. Not a laughing matter.
But my reaction was humorous.
After my heart stopped racing I called my lawyer.
That’s when the laughter started.
He reminded me that lawyers don’t use email for legal action. Or at least,
legit lawyers don’t inform via email. Or voicemail. Or texting.
That experience happened a while ago. The law hasn’t come to jail me -
yet.
The event did give me pause to re-evaluate the sourcing of images in my
posts. Did you know that just because a copyright notice does not appear with
an image, doesn’t mean the image isn’t copyrighted?
Sara Hawkins, creator of “Blog Law,” gave me some practical insights
about image use in her post – “The Best Ways To Be Sure You’re Legally UsingOnline Photos.”
Have you discovered the Unsplash site yet? https://unsplash.com/ You’ll find free, beautiful images, gifted by the world’s most generous
photographers.
Two of the images in this post were found on the Unsplash site.
And that makes me smile confidently as I hit the "Publish" button.
Two of the images in this post were found on the Unsplash site.
And that makes me smile confidently as I hit the "Publish" button.
The last laugh or groan goes to this image that says it all from my musician friend, Emmanuel Fonte.
Bob Jones is
a recovering perfectionist, who collects Coca-Cola memorabilia and drinks Iced
Tea. His office walls are adorned with his sons’ framed football jerseys, and
his library shelves, with soul food. He writes to inspire people to be real,
grow an authentic faith in Jesus, enjoy healthy relationships and discover
their life purpose.
Follow his writing at Pointes Of View.
Follow his writing at Pointes Of View.
I am much more careful now with the images I use (and I have recently just discovered unsplash!) but I am sure I have used images recklessly in the past when I first started blogging... I haven't gotten an email like this yet, but i have had other threatening emails, and as you said, after the first heart pounding moment, I realized they were phishing.
ReplyDeleteI love the term "phishing", Tracy. The word is a neologism created as a homophone of "fishing." This sentence in itself sounds humorous. Thank you for connecting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for these good tips on the legalities and illegalities of using online photos. When it comes time to find photos, I wish I were better with the camera and had a wide selection of my own photos. Thanks for the info on rawpixel and Unsplash. This could B major news for me.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to seeing some of your future posts using Unsplash.
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting the image credits in my photo, Bob. You should also check Pixabay.com and Pexels.com for free images like Unsplash.
ReplyDelete