24/09/2008

We recently advised one of our clients in relation to a letter of demand from a US company for infringement of copyright.  The client had no idea the image that he reproduced in his own website was copyright protected and though the image was taken down soon after the letter of demand was received, our client still faced a very large penalty fee.

There is a widely held misconception that images found online can be used by anyone since it’s in the “public domain”.  Equally misconceived is the notion that anything without the © sign is not copyright protected and, therefore, up for grabs.  In fact copying and pasting has become so commonplace that one cannot be even sure of an image’s original source. 

Whether an image is in the public domain is not decided by whether it is publicly available.  It also doesn’t keep you off the hook just by acknowledging the copyright either.  What is required is an express permission to reproduce the image from the copyright holder.

Our general advice is that if you find an image you would like to use from a website, start with the presumption that the image is copyright protected.  You should then find out the copyright holder of the image and obtain permission to reproduce or distribute the image, usually by paying a relatively small once-only licence fee.   

You should always investigate whether a copyright exists before you do anything.  Perhaps it would be better to only source images for your website from a reputable image-library which can advise you immediately on the copyright (and royalty) issues relating to the image. 

If you are unsure about whether an image is copyright protected or have any other questions concerning copyright infringement, please contact our office on (02) 8296 6222.