Thanks to the internet, today we can easily access extremely rich and diverse image data sources. However, arbitrarily downloading what you want from the website and using it whenever you like is not recommended. The copyright owner still holds the copyright rights, unless otherwise provided by law. Therefore, if you use an image in your design work without permission, the owner can take legal action against you. Therefore, we invite readers to read this article about notes when downloading images from free VCD websites.
1. Some general issues about image copyright
Currently, image copyright infringement is quite common, affecting the lives of the image owners. Image copyright law was issued with the role of protecting copyright for image owners, prohibiting and strictly handling acts of image copyright infringement.
According to the provisions of Article 14 of the Intellectual Property Law on types of works, “Photographic works” are protected by copyright. In particular, photographic works are prescribed in Article 14 of Decree 22/2018/ND-CP as a work that represents an objective image of the world on a light-catching material or on a medium on which the image is created, or can be created by chemical, electronic or other technical methods. Photographic works may or may not be captioned. Protected photographic works must be directly created by the person using his or her intellectual labor.
Therefore, image copyright can be briefly understood as the right to own and use an image of an individual or organization created by them for commercial or non-commercial purposes. All other organizations and individuals who use copyrighted images without the owner’s permission are violating image copyright.
2. Is downloading photos from free sites safe?
Many websites allow you to download photos for free without requiring the image to be copyrighted when used. However, using these free images has many risks because the website is often not the copyright owner. Those websites only distribute the content and are not legally responsible.
These free websites will always say that they will not compensate and are not responsible for any legal claims. Therefore, you need to be careful when using an image that is not created by you. Especially, if the image you use is for commercial purposes, you must carefully check the origin.
In addition, there is also the act of “copyright fraud”. Specifically, unconscious people will post their images on free-sharing websites. They will wait for others to download it, then delete it. Ultimately, these scammers will claim their image copyright has been violated.
3. Be careful when downloading images from free websites
After all, if the image is hosted in the Public Domain or under a Creative Commons license, you can use that image. If you do not fall into the above two cases, downloading images for use (personal or commercial purposes) is considered illegal. Even if you crop and edit the photo, you are still breaking the law.
In addition, there are software like Adobe Stock that provide millions of royalty-free images, videos, illustrations, and 3D products… that you can use in your projects. However, there are always some legal issues that you need to be aware of. It is always best to read the supplier’s terms and conditions carefully. That way you can avoid future risks.
However, determining the origin of an image as well as distinguishing between license types is very complicated. Therefore, users should buy copyrighted images from image supply sites to avoid headaches.
Above is the article “Notes when downloading images from free websites“. We hope this article is useful to you.
