right to post others’ photos on my blog

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  miriamsmith · Member · Jul 2, 2009 at 9:16 pm

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  I would like to add some photos to my blog and I’d like to take some of them from online news sites (e.g. photos of current news events, etc). I see that some blogs do this but I’d like to know if there are any copyright issues that I should be aware of. BTW, I live in Canada but would like to take photos mainly from U.S. web sites.

  The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

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  raincoaster · Member · Jul 3, 2009 at 6:40 am

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  Yes, of course there are copyright issues. The copyright of the picture remains with the photographer. Some sites, such as Flickr, encourage posting of Creative Commons copyright terms, so you know which ones the photogs are allowing you to share and which are not.

  The law basically says you must ask and, if necessary, pay for the right to display the photo. The blogging convention, which will NOT protect you in a court of law, is to use it and link to the source, giving credit either by the link or by a notice such as “photos by Jim Smith at JimSmithVision.com” etc.

  Asking never hurts, and in most cases when you get a response, it’s likely to be positive. Art and photography-specific websites are an exception.