Cutting Law

Did you know that images posted online can either be “copyright-free” or “copyright protected”? Well, now you do.

A vast majority of high-quality images that we re-share, post or repost belong to photographers and artists other than ourselves. Most times these images are copyright protected and carry mild to serious penalties on them, such as a warning to “take it down if it was obtained without the owner(s) consent” or financial/monetary compensation for unauthorized usages.

Yes, your sharing, resharing, posting and reposting can constitute the unauthorized use of another’s artistic or photographic work. However, with the vast majority of the world’s population using the World Wide Web, unauthorized sharing and posting of images and/or photographs, without attributing the requisite recognition or possessing the owner’s consent, is often overlooked.

Alternatively, online users subscribe to sites like Pexels.com, founded by Bruno Joseph and Ingo Joseph in 2014 to allow:

“designers, writers, artists, programmers and other creators to get access to beautiful photos that they can use freely which empowers them to create amazing products, designs, stories, websites, apps, art, and other work.”

Essentially, Pexels.com promote images and photographs of talented photographers and designers while at the same time making them available online for “copyright-free” sharing and posting.

These images and photographs, even though limited, are very high quality (like the one used in this article). Even though the images are copyright free, like every brilliant research piece, the real owner must still be recognized. With that said, thank you to Christina Morilla for this great shot of “a black woman typing”:

Above, we see a “black woman typing”. These were the words that I entered a copyright, royalty free photo site. This means that I can use the image without any rights claims by the owner of the image, which could either be the photographer or his/her client.

There are several copyright, royalty-free photo sites that images can be sourced from to reduce rights claim about unlawful usage of images online. These its include Pexels, RawPixel and Unspark. Designers, companies, artists, content creators use sites like Pexels to produce content and digital designs that are clean and compelling. Usually, these sites ask that the original creator is credited wherever their image is used.

This article is an updated article from my second blog.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to be used as legal advice. If you require legal advice, please seek independent legal advice by contacting legal counsel of your choosing.