As Shannon Connellan explains on Mashable, Google recently made a subtle change to its image search — but one that may have big repercussions for copyright. The company has now removed the “view image” button from image search, which will make it trickier to save copyrighted images directly. Once a direct link to a high-resolution version of your chosen image, the “view image” button was a concern for photographers, publishers and stock image sites alike, as it allowed people to access a high-res version of the image without visiting the source site.
With Google’s elimination of the tool, you’ll still be able to visit the source of the image with the remaining “visit” button, but it’s this additional step that’s hopefully meant to make people less likely to steal copyrighted material — seeing images in their original context could be a red flag for users.
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The Getty Effect
This change was probably at the behest of Getty Images, as it comes in the wake of Google’s new multi-year global licensing partnership with the company, enabling Google to use Getty’s content within its various products and services. Interestingly enough, the partnership was developed after Getty filed a complaint against Google in 2016, accusing the company of anti-competitive practices within Google Images and “distorting search results in favour of its own services” — thus creating less of a need to visit source stock websites likes Getty to download the original image.
“Because image consumption [in Google Images] is immediate, once an image is displayed in high-resolution, large format, there is little impetus to view the image on the original source site,” Getty’s press statement read.
So What?
What does this mean for you?
My advice has always been to use copyright-free photos and images, provided by a number of websites (Pixabay is my current favorite). Even if it’s not the perfect image, you could avoid a lot of hassle down the road.
Also, be sure to give credit where credit’s due (speaking of which, many thanks to Sebastian White for pointing me to the Mashable post!)
Happy blogging!
Reblogged this on 🦉Pizzazz Book Promotions.
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Not sure if it’s in the same vein or just me, but I found Google Chrome has started doing funny stuff with YouTube videos being embedded in WordPress posts. At least music ones. Even fan made videos come up as static telling you it can only be viewed in YouTube. I saw them perfectly using Firefox, but was a no go.
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Really?! I hadn’t noticed that, but I sure do hope they fix that, as it’s quite the pain!
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I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s designed to force people to YouTube, which is owned by Google.
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Certainly a more convincing conspiracy theory than some recent ones…
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Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
Bloggers please note…
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Great post! As Bloggers/writers we need to constantly be aware of copyright issues. I used a photo from online a few years ago that I found on the web. I didn’t know to get in contact with the owner, but I gave them credit and even supplied a link to their website. Shortly after that I received an angry email from the owner of the photo telling me that even if I gave them credit for the photo, I could not use it without their permission.
ANYHOW, it was a good learning lesson. I apologized, took their photo down and found a similar photo from a photographer who I was able to contact and get permission to use his photo, he said he really liked my Blog would be happy for me to use his photo if I gave him credit and referred people to his site. So…. I am super careful now about using photos that are not mine. Pixabay and my own camera are my BEST friend! Thanks for the reminder!
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It’s so weird when people react like that. As far as I’m concerned, you were promoting them, helping others familiarize themselves with this photographer’s work. It’s a shame they didn’t see it that way.
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Yes, that’s how I felt. I mean I went out of my way to “make sure” to follow the rules, but I think she wanted to make a point that UNLESS you get permission, it doesn’t matter if you give them credit. I sure learned a lesson… now I am super careful or at least try to be… thank goodness for Pixabay and my own camera. 🙂
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Reblogged this on Sally Ember, Ed.D. and commented:
Very important for bloggers, like me, who use Google Images. Probably switching to Pixabay or always choosing “VISIT” and attributing Google Images to their sources from now on.
Thanks for posting, Sweet Nicholas! Sharing!
Sally
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Interesting! I’ve been designing images for my work in progress. I’m not sure if I’ll actually use them, but even if I just want to post them on my blog, I don’t want copyright issues. Of course I had no luck trying to get permission to use the 2 perfect images I found using Google — no response to emails. So I’ll be licensing a stock image that’s almost as good, and combining it with free images from Pixabay. You’re right about that site, Nicholas — it’s a goldmine for useful images. One thing — rather than just Save as, actually display the Pixabay image and click on the green Download button. That gives you a range of sizes to choose from, so you can make sure you’re getting a high resolution image that works for you. (I mentioned that because it took a while before that particular light bulb came on for me).
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Many thanks for the tip 🙂
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Reblogged this on Kim's Author Support Blog.
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Reblogged this on Author Don Massenzio and commented:
Check out this informative post from Nicholas Rossis blog regarding changes to the Google Images policy.
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I use Pixabay too. I’m also very careful about using images. Copyright is such a minefield. I use my own images where possible and, as I said, Pixabay. With a good photo editing suite, you can alter and combine in many different ways.
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Very true!
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Fascinating, Nicholas. Thank you.
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Thank you, Gwen! I hope you’re enjoying the weekend 🙂
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It’s actually good to see this get tightened up. Users often create liabilities for themselves (especially with Getty) by not checking origin on the images they copy. And those of us who create such images (as I do, from time to time) are also better protected – I once had to issue a take-down notice to someone who’d stolen 25 of my photos in one hit and reposted them on their own website, without credit or asking. As you say, the best advice is to always use public domain images or those for which copyright has expired – and my thought there is that, because copyright duration differs internationally, it’s also best to make sure they are public domain in every country, not just the US.
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Sound advice!
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