The Internet contains literally millions of images and photographs available for download. With this abundant supply station personnel may be tempted to use these images on their websites. Easy accessibility of these images, however, does not mean that they are in the public domain and available for use. Rather, unless explicitly stated otherwise, these images are protected under U.S. copyright law, and the right to reproduce and control how they are used rests exclusively with the individual creator of the work or a publisher. Unauthorized use of these images could constitute copyright infringement for which the station can be held liable. This applies even where the image is not accompanied by the “©” symbol or other copyright notice. The potential liability for copyright infringement is $150,000 per infringement claim plus attorneys fees.

One way to obtain images for use on your website (other than by entering into an agreement with AP, Getty or another image licensing service) is to utilize a free Creative Commons license as follows

● Visit Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/
● Click boxes for:
- Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content
- Find content to use commercially
- Find content to modify, adapt, or build upon (if you plan to crop the image, add to a Flipper or header art, etc.)

● Once you have selected an image, read the “Additional Information” area to the right for information about the particular Creative Commons license. For an overview of licenses, see:
 http://creativecommons.org/policies#lice...

● If the author requires a credit or other type of attribution, you must credit as they desire. (Note: These examples are not always easy to find.) See below for instructions on marking images as CC. Attribution Instructions:
- http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking
- http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Marking_...

If you are searching for images that you will want to be able to simply use as-is (in other words, unmodified), follow the directions on this page. These are called “No Derivative” works:
 http://creativecommons.org/license/resul...

If you are searching for an image that you will want to edit or remix, follow the instructions on this page. These are called “Attribution” licenses.  http://creativecommons.org/license/resul...

Finally, stations must use care whenever an image contains an identifiable person who is not a public figure (e.g., Madonna / Zac Efron) and/or a trademark. Though Creative Commons is a great licensing tool for the image itself, it does not convey other rights relating to the subject of the image. For example privacy rights are beyond the scope of the license. In other words, an image of a mountain range is not an issue, but an image of a child on a roller coaster (whose faces is clearly identifiable) can subject the station to a claim of invasion of privacy. Similarly, it is also an issue if the image is an image of a copyright image (e.g., a picture of a famous poster).

For more info about Creative Commons and Creative Commons on Flickr, see:
 http://creativecommons.org/about/
 http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

If you have any questions, contact Joe Rosenthal or Andrew Sutor.