To Market We Go | Learn From My Mistake
An Image Is Worth A Thousand Words
For me it was over a thousand dollars. I made a sickening and expensive mistake a couple years ago. I knew it would turn into a blog post one day, but I didn’t have the heart to write about it until now. PLEASE read and don’t do what I did!
Good Intentions Gone Bad
I was reading an article in a magazine and it mentioned one of my clients. I had the brilliant idea to find the digital article and share it on the client’s website. I used the same image, wrote a little blurb and gave credit to the magazine and the photographer of the image. Even hyperlinked back to the article. I thought I was doing everything right.
About a week later, the client gets an email saying that there was an image rights copyright infringement claim. I looked at the email and brushed it aside as it looked like spam. But, I did remove the image and link from the website. Well, the emails kept coming and they weren’t spam and they had a $2,000.00 price tag attached for using the image without a license. I felt absolutely sick and didn’t know what to do.
I reached out to anyone who I thought could help me. They had never encountered this problem. I finally reached out to the image rights company who was representing the photographer and claimed my innocence. I truly thought sharing the article, linking back to it and giving the photog credit was sufficient.
They did NOT agree! Long story short I had to get a lawyer and was able to get the infringement fee reduced but it was still a hefty price. I learned my lesson loud and clear. Do not share any photos on the internet that you don’t have permission to use, you will get burned.
The Silver Lining
The silver lining is me telling you how to avoid this for yourself. The best source of images are the ones you take yourself. If you feel like yours aren’t doing the trick, there is an amazing website that I have used for years that allows you to freely use imagery and you will not suffer any licensing infringement issues. That site is Unsplash. The image for this newsletter is credited at the very bottom of this page. You can create a free account with them and have access to hundreds of thousands of beautiful images to use however you’d like. You can even add your own and spread the love.
How Can I Help?
Image sourcing is a drain on your time. If you’d like me to do the heavy lifting for you, please let me know and fill out the form below.
Photo by Goh Rhy Yan on Unsplash