Stop Stealing Images – Get Free Stock Photo Credits

Just because it’s on the internet does not mean it’s free. You may be able to access plenty of content online at no cost, but that does not give you any right to (ab)use it as you see fit.

Unfortunately when it comes to images a lot of people seem to think that you can just grab an image from a site and reuse it.

You can’t.

The only exception to this would be if the rights holder has given you permission to use their images, designs or other content.

So what are your options?

Basically there are three:

1. Ask the rights holder for permission to use their content, be that images or other content. There is, of course, no guarantee that they’ll grant you permission
2. Use images and content that is licensed under Creative Commons or similar style licenses. There are several different types of license available and each one has different terms and conditions. If you do go down that route it can be incredibly enriching, but remember to respect the content provider’s rights. Read the license terms carefully and respect them.
3. Use stock images. While the “big boys” may be able to pay out hundreds of Euro for a single image we know that most people can’t, so please read on …

We’ve arranged a very nice little deal with one of the leaders in stock imagery – Fotolia

If you signup for an account with them using our special link you’ll get:

• 3 welcome credits for FREE
• A 20% bonus on your first purchase

In order to get the special deal signup using the link from us and make sure that you complete the signup fully ie. confirm your email address and provide full contact details. If you’re concerned about privacy have a read over their privacy policy.

The “freebies” should appear on your account either automatically or within one working day.

Since I’m a strong believer in “eating our own dogfood” we’ll be using stock images from Fotolia on our sites in the future as well.