A recent post on a forum I watch brought in full light the fact that Google ( and Yahoo to a lesser degree) seem to disregard copyright issues a little too much when their image search service* makes available to all images randomly taken from sites on the web.

Sure accessibility of information and data is great, but Google, could you show some moderation? Not everything can be free and open – and come from ONE source: Google. But that’s for a future post.

A professional webmaster (i.e, not your neophyte web user) had used one of the images she found in a Google image search on a site she was building. She later received a notice to pay the rights to use this image from the image bank that seems to hold the rights to this image.

> The webmaster had no warning from Google that the image she downloaded was copyright-protected.
> Google may argue they did not even know this, as the automated engine just grabbed the image from a site. But a little diligence might include first checking an image is royalty- free before making it available to the world.
>The future is probably Google adding visible legal jargon indicating the images it presents may not be royalty-free.

Google is dealing with this issue on a regular basis, either through negociation or through lawsuits but beware, all that’s on Google, Yahoo or on the web, is NOT for the taking!

To be safe, check, and if necesary ask permission first before using any other material than your own.

More reading:

http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6102153.html

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=15068
Post FootNote:

* To be sure I’m understood, this is a service found by clicking ‘Images‘ on the Google search page and entering keywords, thereby searching not for pages but solely for, duh, images. Google entices you to use the images even more by adding: ‘ This is only a thumbnail view, use the viewer to enlarge, etc..’. Talk about tempting!