subject: How To Differentiate Between Copyrighted And Royalty Free Images [print this page] Every day there are thousands of new websites that are being created and updated. This means it is the responsibility of the webmasters to find top quality royalty free images for using commercially. Images and photos are an integral part of any website and create a very big impact on its audience than websites without any images or illustrations. It is a very well known fact that websites with images and pictures are visually more appealing and makes the viewer to stay on your website for a little longer.
Mistakes Webmasters Make
Once the webmaster understands the need for an image or a photograph, he needs to find images that are perfectly suited for the project on hand. However, in many instances, the webmasters make mistakes. They search the internet for copyrighted free images. In fact they should be looking for royalty free photos or images. It is important that webmasters be able to differentiate between copyrighted images and royalty free images.
Learning about Copyrighted Images
When you take a photograph, you automatically become the owner of the image. It means that you own the copyright for that particular photograph or image. Nobody can use this photograph legally without getting a copyright release from you. Getting a copyright release can be an expensive preposition. Very often stock images are published on websites and magazines without obtaining a copyright release. Using pictures without obtaining copyrights is not a legal thing to do. It is always better to contact the original photographer and come to some kind of an understanding with him.
Paying Copyright Fees
You can use the photographs by obtaining a license for the copyrighted images by paying a fee or royalty. This also includes paying a certain percentage to the owner every time a product or service is sold using the copyrighted image.
Learning about Royalty free Images
Another way of using images is to opt for royalty free stock photography. This allows you to pay a one time fee for using the pictures without any future royalty payments. You have different kinds of royalty agreements. Some allow only non commercial use whereas there are others who allow the image only for a limited number of times. One thing that should be noted here is that the royalty free license allows you to sell only products and services using the royalty free pictures. There are websites on the internet that do not place any kind of restrictions and allows you to use the royalty free images the way you want to.
Finally, if your advertisement budget does not place any restrictions then opting for copyrighted images is the best thing to do. Otherwise, it is better to go for royalty free images as they are less expensive.
