: Where do blogs get their pictures? I see a lot of blogs that are full of picture galleries, showing celebrities for example, and I wonder how they get all these pictures. Do most blogs just

@Vandalay111

Many photographers make their photos available under a Creative Commons license: an easy-to-understand set of rules that works within copyright law to make images free to use, while letting the photographer still specify key provisions like:


non-commercial use
disallowing modification
attribution required


Most images on Flickr are Creative Commons licensed. You can use their advanced search to specify that you're looking for CC-licensed photos, and more specifically if you need ones that can be used commercially or modified. You can also find CC-licensed images using Google Images ("only labeled for re-use").

Besides Creative Commons photos, there are a few other sources for free photography. I usually check:


Wikimedia Commons - some of these photos require attribution, but many are public domain or otherwise freely available.
MorgueFile - a public image archive "for creatives by creatives", Morguefile provides photos completely free, for any purpose except resale.
stock.xchng - a free stock photo site, supported by also featuring images from paid stock photo sites (marked separately).


And if you're a "serious" blogger, you can get access to free official publicity photos. Image.net provides a service for this.

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@Moriarity557

It is good to use creative commons attribution images. You can use images in flickr which are under creative commons attribution and share-alike license. That way you're taking permission from author for the image reuse and also crediting him with the backlink.

There is also pixabay that offers creative commons images or free images. They have a limited database but you're likely to get some quality images from them. As for gettyimages, shutterstock and sxc being stock image sites, using them without permission is not allowed. If you want to stay safe on legal grounds then it is better to use creative commons images.

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@Kevin317

Depends who you're talking about, but there are several options.
Some sites actually send people to events and get their own photography. There are also services that do licensing for this sort of thing. Off the top of my head, Getty Images is obvious, and the Associated Press has a separate dedicated image service, as does Reuters. There's also WireImage, which at the lower-level plans will be within the budget of even comparatively casual bloggers.

A service called PicApp used to have a setup with wordpress.com to give its users access to their imagery, but they're now defunct.

Questions of legal implication can't really be addressed without specific examples, obviously. Someone misappropriating images owes money/credit to whoever owns rights to them, end of story. Any other case requires considering the terms of use/licensing behind it.

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