Some bloggers are very tech savvy and make their own imagery, others, like myself, rely on the strength of our imagination and a few, specific search strings on Google (images.google.com).
I doubt you can find a single person who is not familar with Cartoon Stock (Google it), their imagery is very effective and sometimes can be used to further illustrate a point that a blogger is trying to make. They are however, a mere copy of "The Far Side", to those of you who remember it, they made wonderfully hilarious calendars back in the day. I used to enjoy visiting my uncle to flip through the Far Side calendar and laugh.
However, notice how the image always has an imbedded watermark at the top that reads "publishing rights obtainable from cartoonstock.com".
Which basically means that, despite the content being readily available online, you cannot just copy the link and insert it into your blog without permission (i.e. royalties).
The majority of bloggers are blogging as a habit, with no monetary value either paid or received through their blog. It seems mundane to request bloggers to pay money for sharing an image when they infact are not gaining anything monetary from that image or their blog itself.
The reason I am writing this is because recently I read on a fellow bloggers website how they were sent an email from some site or other requesting that the blogger either take down a picture they used from their site, or they will send them an invoice. Bear in mind this blogger is in Kuwait, and the website in question was UK-based.
Bear in mind, I am not an alpha blogger; in no way, shape or form am I eluding to that by offering advice. It is merely something that came to me as an idea, and I feel it would be beneficial to the blogging community as a whole to know this.
So, you want to add a picture to your blog, and the "Man" doesn't want you to. What to do?
First off, how do websites/ artists track who is using their image(s) without their consent (if they requested it)?
All images have "tags" on them, and maybe when you link to an image through its URL it registers on some log or other that this has occurred, hence the original artist is informed that you are using this without their permission (I'm guessing here).
This has happened to me before, I linked a certain picture to my blog, and then when I was checking the post, the picture had changed to something along the lines of (this picture was obtained without prior consent hence it has been removed) or an anecdote or funny remark meaning the same.
Another way for an artist to know who has been using their pictures without permission is through TinEye (here) which allows you to search USING images, so if you have a picture of something, you upload it to that site and it searches for all other sites on which this image exists. (very nifty).
All you have to do is stop using links for pictures. Opt instead to save the picture onto your computer. For safe measure, right click on the image, go to properties, click on the summary tab and check for any URL imbedded into the photo (delete it), then go into the advanced mode and do the same, once you find anything imbedded, delete it. Now you can upload the image to your blog as a picture, not a URL.
Now, short of the original artist going to your blog personally (or using TinEye) to search for their work, you will be safe from the greedy corporations that want to exploit every penny out of you.
Disclaimer: Artists are entitled to remuneration. The author does not condone theft nor does he accept any responsibility for how this information is used.
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