Bloggers often take for granted the copyrights of photographers and artists and publish protected work on their blogs or websites, often without credit. Most is probably fair use but who wants to test it in court.
Play it safe and use images in the public domain or those licensed for use under Creative Commons (most only requiring author attribution and a link to a webpage).
Google Image search is going to put in this filter, following Yahoo’s lead, to make these images searchable. Until then, you can find these images on Google image search as follows:
1. Public domain images: The best. Free for everyone to use– no credit necessary.
http://images.google.com/images?q=SEARCH TERM&as_rights=cc_publicdomain
2. Images licensed using Creative Commons Attribution: OK to copy, transmit & adapt with attribution (author credit) and notice (link here)
Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).
Notice — For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page.
http://images.google.com/images?q=SEARCH TERM&as_rights=cc_attribute
3. Images licensed using Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike: same as above plus
Share Alike — If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same, similar or a compatible license.
and link to this page.
http://images.google.com/images?q=SEARCH TERM&as_rights=cc_sharealike
Yahoo allows for a Creative Commons search on its Advanced Search page: Yahoo will search Flickr.com for these images.
Sources: Google Operating System blog; Yahoo Search Blog
Related Post
How to Find Copyright Free Images in the Public Domain
