Nothing like a copyright infraction warning to wake me up on a Tuesday afternoon.
I received a message from COPYTRACK today regarding an image I used in a blog post in 2019 that may or may not be legally infringing the copyright of the rights holder.
I was a little bit annoyed by this, as I have ALWAYS advocated for people to use licensed images online. (See https://thewebforbusiness.com/free-images-thats-nuts/ for an article from 2019 on this very topic!)
However, the folks who run digital-rights protection companies have a job to do, so I trundled off to find the image.
Turns out that was a little more challenging than I’d anticipated.
First off, where did I even download that image to? It was 7 years ago, and I’m not exactly super-actively blogging these days. I could barely find the folder that I’d downloaded blog images to. However, it was eventually found.
Of course, I found the image that I’d downloaded, but needed to provide evidence that it was downloaded legitimately. Off to my stock library – only to find that the image in question had been removed from the library’s collection at some point.
At least I have some evidence that I’d held a license for this image.
I promptly filled out the review form from COPYTRACK and now I am hoping for the best.
Interestingly, the name of the rights holder is different from the name of the copyright holder in the downloaded image’s properties. I don’t know what this means. I suppose it could be that someone took the rights holder’s image and uploaded it to the image library without their consent. I have no idea what happens if that is actually the case.
Anyway, take this as a reminder that if you see something online, it’s not yours to use. There’s a copyright attached, and if you’re in violation, it could be an expensive experience for you. Make sure the stuff you use is yours, or that you have a proper license to use it.
I’ll let you know how COPYTRACK responds.
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