Copyright, Google Images and Creative Commons #ImTristanGInsights

Today I want to talk to you about Copyright, Google Images and Creative Commons. This has been prompted by conversation with Anna Sofia Correa in the Espresso+ community, this is also part of my #ImTristanGInsights series, which is a series sharing my own thoughts and insights to help you to navigate the complex online world of digital marketing, content creation and building your personal brand. 

[ Rather watch / listen - check the VIDEO via this link or at the bottom of the article ]

Now we're going to have to cover a few things, so excuse me if you're already versed in this area of copyright and creative commons, but I want to make sure everybody's on the same page. In order for us to fully understand the implications of what we're going to be discussing I need to cover a few things firstly and foremost. 

Copyright is a type of intellectual property that you own; And own the rights to and the copyright protects that. 

So it's really important you understand when you create anything you create a copyright alongside that. 

It differs as you change where you are around the world, certain places honour that copyright immediately as soon as you create that creative work, in other places you have to formally register it in order to have the protection in those areas. So it's really important that you make sure that you're following the process in the given area where you want that protection from copyright of your creative works. 

Copyright usually runs for a limited time, and there's an interesting example that we'll discuss a little bit later on, but copyright is intrinsically created when you start creating that work, so as you finish it. It is there. It's ready. Then you've got a copyright against that. 

As I said, in some places you have to register that creative work in order to be protected, but in some places it is automatic and therefore we don't need to take any action. 

There has been a very strict guideline around copyright, and that's been very, very rigid for a long time, until we came into the world of ‘creative commons’. And quite often this is very confusing and frustrating for people, because not everybody really understands what creative commons is all about. 

When they talk about it on the creative commons website which you can find at creativecommons.org they actually talk about;

 "Want to work together : Helping people to share, reuse and remix creative works" 

What they're trying to do is create a more flexible way for people to manage their copyrights and allow other people to create derivative works, and set the boundaries of whether it can be used commercially or non-commercially. 

It's really important that we understand what each of those licences means, and creative commons was created to help people to write out what that copyright looks like, and it’s a free service, that you can go and check out through their website, and that can apply to literary, artistic, educational, music, whatever type of creative work that you're working on.

Definitely go and check out what that looks like, and make sure that you're decided, how you're happy for people to use it.

• Are they allowed to use it in its original form? 
• Do they have to remix or make a derivative work from it? 
• Can they use it commercially or would you rather that people were only able to use it for personal use? 

You answers to these questions will dictate the type of creative commons licence that's then created and applied to your works. 

Now the conversation came up around the use of images and ‘copyright free images’ - You may well have been to places like Google and seen that you can go, and you can get images from Google that you can change by filter, and I'm going to actually show you very, very quickly a little bit later on how you can do that, but I also want to preface that with a warning - that it's not that accurate at all! 

I want to say before we do that,

Don't trust google! 

Now I don't actually mean don't trust Google, when I say that. What I mean is, when you use the tool provided by Google in order to do that, I want you to really consider that Google is only working with the information that it's been provided by the websites where the images are hosted, and the information attached to those. 

Sometimes people may have already stolen the work or misused it and uploaded it to another site where it would be applied that it had a creative commons licence, or had no copyright against it, and therefore you might think that you are using something that is not a copyrighted piece of work simply because someone has misused it before. 

So be very, very careful when you use that!

I would highly recommend maybe taking a subscription to some sites that provide imagery or video, or creative works that you can use in your work and especially if you're going to do critiquing of things. 

There's a very big confusion around the ‘fair usage’ to do with copyright. A lot of people think you can just use anything you want in your work, and the reality is there are some conditions that come along with that - it's not as straightforward as ‘I can just use anything’. 

It can't be a substantial part of the original work, when you're critiquing it, and things like that, claiming it to be ‘fair usage’ 

You're not protected by saying that ‘I'm using under fair usage’ and using more than is reasonably accepted by the general consensus. 

So actually, it does come down to a whole load of different things, and one of these interesting examples about this whole copyright side of things is....

If you remember, you may be aware may not be aware, there's a whole big thing around Walt Disney and the Original Mickey Mouse that appeared on Steamboat Willie, that was way way way back in 1928, and there's this length of time that copyright applies for, where it automatically expires and becomes public domain. Which means it can be used without that copyright being applied. 

Now it's a bit more complex than that, we won't go into too much about that right now, but the reality is this is happening to large organisations, it's happening to small creative artists and literary people, and I want to just inform you and help you to navigate this complex side of the internet. 

Obviously with imagery, and creative works, we work hard to create them and we want to protect them as fairly as we can, whilst also making them accessible to people. 

That public domain referencing that I've just talked about there, is quite often used by people when they say;

‘well it was already in the public domain’ 

What they actually mean was; 

‘I found that image on Facebook or Google or somewhere else’

....and the reality is the image that's been posted onto Facebook, people often seed the idea that you've granted a licence to Facebook for it to be there, so it's in the public domain and therefore I can use it. 

The reality is most of those sites also have terms and conditions of usage and republication, that bans and forbids that even though they have licensing for it. They usually demand a worldwide irrevocable licence to be able to republish and the reason for that is so that they can operate their site. If you put an image on your profile for example and it needs to show in the feed, it's not on your profile, it's in the feed and it needs to therefore technically be replicated in another place. 

That doesn't mean that people outside of Facebook can take those images and use them elsewhere. The images are still protected by various rights. 

It's really important that you get your head around this.

I'm not giving legal advice, but I am advising based on my own experience.

I want to share a couple of examples with you. I'm really clear on this, you know, even people like Walt Disney and the Disney Corporation facing these same things, where things are going to come into the public domain in the original format. And it's important to understand it's the original drawings, not the current versions that will come into the public domain. - It doesn't suddenly all become available, it comes available based on time. 

I'm just going to quickly read you a bit from an article over here as well; 

There's also talking about A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh, a lot of the characters actually, interestingly enough this year, came into the public domain and are available to use including Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, all of that lot. 

Interestingly Tigger didn't actually make an appearance in any of the books until 1928, so that means because there's a two-year difference. There's a two-year difference in when that copyright will expire and therefore that will come into the public domain. 

It's not just a blanket across everything. These are really good case studies and examples of what's happened, and things that you need to consider. 

You’ve got to be careful about understanding it properly;

One thing about copyright is it is easy to prove and also to make a claim!

If you have the original work and you can prove when you created it, which is why, with now in digital creation, most things have got dates and time stamps on them, and you've got the original image, or poem, or literary work. Or whatever it looks like - a video, whatever creative work we're talking about - you've got the original thing. You've got a date and a time stamp on it, and you'll be able to prove that you had it before anybody else, and if they've used it and you didn't grant permission, that is quite straightforward. It can be as simple as literally sending them a letter saying - ‘Excuse me you've misused this’. 

However you want to pursue it; That might be going for the financial reward and the compensation for the misuse, or it might be just asking them to stop using it as a ‘cease and desist’ - to stop that action going any further. 

It could work out for you really well - financially.

I've got an interesting story for you on that one in just a minute. 

On the fair usage side, be really really careful. 

Understand it, if anyone's ever misused your work. 

Please do go and have a look, get some legal advice and really do have a look into it before you go guns blazing making demands. 

Now I've been a media photographer working for the national press both here and in Australia for a number of years, and I've actually had a few instances where this sort of thing's happened, and I'm going to give you an example right now during this piece of content, where I'm going to share with you exactly the breakdown of what's happened. 

This example really backs everything that I'm saying about that ‘fair usage’ and also usage from on social media platforms, because I think it's really important to use real life examples to really reiterate everything to do with this. 

There are things that are Important where people are looking at the creative commons or the fair usage side of things, and really really need to be taken into consideration. 

Factors have been identified by the courts in determining whether or not a particular dealing with with a work include;  

1. Does the work affect the market for the original work?
2. If use of a work acts as a substitute for it, causing the owner to lose revenue, then is not likely to be fair usage. 
3. Is the amount of work taken reasonable and appropriate?
4. Was it necessary to use that amount of work that had been taken?
5. Usually only part of that work can be used. 

So it's really important to consider all of these things when you're looking at the copyright side. 

The main thing that prompted this was a conversation around ‘getting images from Google. & where to get copyright free, or images that had licences ready for use’, and I wanted to really cover this, because it's an area that I have got a level of expertise in. 

I really want to share an example with you, and so using an article right now that is going to really, really highlight for you something that's happened in my world that is relevant to what's being discussed here too. 

Bringing up a very quick Google search as the example

Obviously we're talking about copyright misusage and the licensing, that has or hasn't happened, and it's really important that you understand what's going on here.

We're quickly going to go into a just literally a Google search that we're going into now. 

So here I've literally just searched for 'Scarlett Moffatt's birthday' - where she's just had a big lavish festival for her 31st birthday, and I was there as the photographer, in an official capacity, and I was working directly for her. 

Now she had a licence to recreate those images, for her own social because she'd hired me, and she'd already negotiated her licensing so she knew what she could do with it, which was to post to Instagram, post to Facebook etc. She had the rights to use those images. 

In the same way, when she posts them to Facebook or to Instagram, they've got a licence to republish them, otherwise the platform wouldn't work, and that's exactly what happened. 

We're going to look at this top article here from The Mirror. 

You'll notice here that as we go in, we've created all the images and also a video that had been used by Scarlett on her Instagram, and what then happened was a number of publications used them, and put them out across the media on their websites. Because it's breaking news, it's a person of interest, and they've obviously published it. Taking it from social media platforms, they've taken the video from there, they've taken photos from there, and because I know what I'm doing, it was really easy for me to go and negotiate with them, and say; 

 'Look you're not allowed to do this, you know the rules, you know you're bound by a code of conduct, and so let's talk about it, and let's come to a reasonable agreement on what's going to happen.' - Tristan Griffiths #ImTristanG

As you can see (in the video version) / highlighted here that there's a video playing - this is the video that Scarlett posted onto her Instagram. 

What happened was, a whole load of publications misused it.

• They took it from her account 
• They didn't ask her permission, and they didn't ask my permission. 
• If they'd asked her permission, she actually hadn't bought the rights to resell any of the work on
• They would have had to come to me, as I'm the only person with the licence and the right to give that copyright to someone else.

So important to distinguish the difference between the copyright owner, and the licence holder. She's got a licence to use in certain capacity, that we've negotiated, but she didn't have a resale licence. Which is obviously what's happened here. 

They've also gone through, they've grabbed images, and you can see the still images on the article. Some of the still images that were used by the publications came directly from the video, and some were actually taken as actual images here. 

These examples are generally taken from within the video, so they're still frames, but they are because they've been duplicated, you can actually bill for them again. They can actually be billed more than once. 

That was The Mirror, and  it's not one, I want to highlight that it's not any one individual publication, there are a number of them that do this, and it's really important. 

This happens not just with the media, not just with newspapers, and it happens across the board. Same thing - The Sun did the same thing. 

If you scroll through you'll see again there were some images in there, and some videos.

And the way that the media works is unfortunately, when they publish something, because they're part of larger syndicates, what happens is that it publishes for one site, and all of their sub sites, or  sister sites start to republish that content. 

Had they properly licensed it, they could have licensed for use across all of those sites prior to putting it out, but they didn't, because they're in a hurry. It's about breaking the news first, and what they've actually done is they've created multiple accounts, that they're then going to have to pay for licences on.

The minute you break copyright;

It always favours the creator! 

....to say 'did they have the rights to use that under licence - yes or no?'

And then if not, ‘what would you have charged them in order to do that?' 

Because they've already used it, they're obliged to make some sort of payment, in order to cover that licensing, and it is quite easy to take those people to court. Fortunately it didn't end up in court, and a number of publications paid out, and it was very very good financially for us!! 

But the point I'm trying to share here is that you have an instant copyright from the minute you create a work!. 

If you're in an area we have to register it, make sure you go and do that, but you own the copyright and the licensing rights, to decide how people should use it. 

Some people want to use creative commons, and want people to be able to create derivative works, or they want to be able to allow people to just use their work, so that it gets seen by more people. But if you don't want to do that, make sure that you know your rights, and you know how to stand up, and how to have those conversations. 

If you want to talk to me about it, please do feel free to reach out to me. 

You can find me as @ImTristanG across all the socials, and I'm more than happy to share a little bit about this. 

It's really important that you don't fall into the trap that so many people do. 

So I want to break down a couple of things that are absolutely true. 

Taking images from on social media and reusing them is not a legal thing to do. 

You can be breaking all sorts of copyrights. 

Just because in the terms and conditions of Facebook or Instagram or 'insert social platform here' - in their terms, I may have granted a licence to put my image there for them to reproduce it, it does not give you the right to reproduce it anywhere else. 

There are some exceptions which can be 'fair usage' - which obviously we did cover a little bit earlier on, but it’s actually really important you understand what 'fair usage' is. Please do go and have a look at that. Creative Commons has got quite a good section covering that as well, and it's important that you understand it. If you're ever going to be using any work from other people, the safest bet is actually to go and to licence properly any images or any video, or any other creative works that you're going to use, either as the whole, or part of anything that you create for your business. 

I hope this has been useful to you, and as I say it was prompted by a conversation around people looking for those images. 

There's a whole load more resources that I can share with you, if you reach out to me, around places you can get photos and videos, and creative works that are going to help you to protect yourself, and also get the very best that you can within your budget as well. Some are done by licensing individual works and others are done as a blanketed licence. 

A whole different topic - that we won't go right into now! But depending on your budget, we've got licence to various different places, depending on what we're looking for, and we're also providing for our clients when we do content creation services for them. Whether it's thumbnails or videos, whatever. So we have to make sure that everything is completely 100% covered and that we've got the licences. 

Also, if you get licences for creative works, keep a copy of them. If you email them to yourself, or send them to someone or whatever, make sure you create a copy, so that you can find it easily!

If there is ever a dispute, the last thing I want for you to do is find yourself in hot water because you didn't pay attention, you didn't listen right to the end, and you maybe thought it was okay to go and grab those images from on Google, but didn’t get the licence or can’t find it when you need it!

With those images, the thing I was talking about, was the 'usage search' so if you've never actually seen how to do that on a 'usage search' I'm going to really quickly show you on Google.

So in here I'm just literally doing a very quick Google search, we'll use 'Scarlett Moffatt' again, just simply because that's the example I've just given you. 

Obviously if you're looking for images, you'd go into the 'images tab' at the top, and give you a whole load of images. 

 Now under the 'tools' section here you can bring up 'usage rights' as a drop down, and then you've got 'creative commons licences' and also 'commercial licences and other licences'

Obviously when you change these, it will show you images that are claiming to be that, but please double, triple check whether or not they actually are or not, because they could have been mis-uploaded, or misattributed, and obviously that's not Google's fault, it's the place where they've originally been put has caused that problem. 

There are loads of places you can commercially licence them, so it's best to either have a licence agreement, where you get images from that place, or to buy those images, in order to use them. It's not very expensive, and if you're doing a lot of imagery, you're probably better to go to one of these licensing places that provides blanket cover. 

That’s exactly what I was talking about, the licensing search at the top of Google, that might not always be as accurate as you hope it is. Not down to Google, but down to the misuse by some people of images or creative works prior to putting them on sites where Google pulls it's information from. 

Hopefully this has been useful to you. 

The whole thing around Copyright, Google Images, and the Creative Commons, is not straightforward. 

My content is normally much shorter than this, and it has been quite a deep dive, but I wanted to give you real life examples. I wanted to share and show you exactly how it works. 

• I would love to know if you've ever had an issue with it? 
• If you've ever had a run-in with someone about use of their content? 

I know a number of people that have had that problem, on both sides.

They've either been called out, or they're the person whose work has been misused.

• And I'd love to know how it worked out for you?
• How you managed to resolve that as well? 

Please do let me know, either down in the comments, or drop me a message as @ImTristanG across all the socials. 

You can connect with me, like I say, anywhere that suits you.

Remember you can follow the hashtag #ImTristanGInsights - it's a whole series where I'm sharing my thoughts and ideas, to help you navigate the complex world of digital marketing, content creation and building your personal brand. 

I'll catch you again in another piece of content very soon!

—

If you have thoughts or insights around this topic I would love to hear them down in the comment section, as always I am a strong believer that we can all learn from one another, and this is not a one-way broadcast, but an invite to a conversation around an important topic!

Thanks for taking the time to read #ImTristanGInsights 

My aim in 2022 is the publish a blog around my thoughts and insights every single day throughout the year.

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So as I always say in my live streams, please do connect with me wherever you most like to spend time! 

Thanks again for your time & sharing your thoughts… 

Tristan Griffiths AKA #ImTristanG

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