Reply To: Using other photographer's work to promote your business

[stef]

On one hand, why should one particular industry not be allowed to use stock photos?

On the other, using stock photos for a photography site is like false advertising. Kind of like a restaurant showing food from other restaurants. But is it any worse than hiring models to do a wedding shoot? That is common practice.

So, I do consider the level of abuse when using other’s images… I wouldn’t care if someone used a stock photo of clouds as a background or other random things like a hot woman wearing a headset waiting for your call. As long as it wasn’t in a section marked “portfolio” or strongly implied that those shots are his, then I have no problem. After all, some images just don’t lend well to showing on a website. If I was a scientific or highly specialized photographer, I’d want to get stock photos to make my website look good for the things I couldn’t shoot myself. (Also, you don’t need the full copyright to reproduce someone else’s photos, you just need a license. A simple email “sure, go ahead and use my pic on your website” is probably good enough. My online client gallery has a someone else’s monitor calibration image as the first image of every gallery, and I got permission to reproduce it via email.)

There are some images in the public domain that my business has used for composites with images we took. If I need a particular texture, I might look for a public domain version instead of going out and shooting some barn wood, for example. It’s fast and easy, legal, and I don’t have any issue with the ethics. I generally avoid creative commons for commercial stuff, since most of the licensing is non-commercial, and all of it requires credit. A surprising number of people put their images in the public domain, and it’s awesome … I liken it to tossing dollar bills out the window that only a few people ever pick up. I don’t feel bad at all picking one up and spending it now and then.