Recently, one of
our top-producing agents shared with me a troubling experience regarding the
use of artwork or photos on our websites or other promotional materials. This agent and his team had created their own
website not long ago and it looks fabulous. But one of the photos they used came from a
website of thousands of shared photos that seemed like a great place to
download excellent stock pictures. They
assumed, as I’m sure any of us would, that since you could so easily download
the image, it must have been in the public domain and available for anyone’s
use. I know I’ve downloaded things like
that before on occasion for flyers and other materials.
Well, as Lee
Corso might say, “Not so fast!” (Hey,
football season is just around the corner, right?)
Unfortunately,
the agent and his team received a “cease and desist” letter from an agency
claiming to own the rights to the photo, and demanding they not only stop using
the picture, but also that they pay $1,100 to the agency or face a law suit! After consulting a legal advisor, the agent
and his team were told that, indeed, the claim was legitimate and that the
agency probably made a practice of suing folks over this kind of thing. Talk about a shock! It turns out that the website where the
agent’s team got the photo had a disclaimer, probably at the bottom of some
page in a tiny font, noting that the site did not own the photos and that they
were all subject to the rights of the owner.
Translation: you can’t download
them and use them commercially.
The bottom line
was that the agent had no choice but to pay the claim, although they were able
to negotiate a slight reduction in the cost.
Thus, a word to the wise: beware and be careful ever downloading an
image from the internet unless you have confirmed that it is freely available for
commercial use or you have purchased it from one of the many stock photo
websites. Photo Bucket and other similar
places that allow folks to post and share their pictures are not making those
photos available for our commercial use!
So, enjoy those
shared photo websites and use them for inspiration and ideas, but get out your
own camera—or use a pro—so you can leave those shared photos on their own
websites and keep your money in your own pocket.
David M. Hassler
Director of Coaching
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