Blog Post
Thou Shalt Not Steal (a Parable)
Tis easier to ask forgiveness than permission.
That is, unless you’re facing a lawsuit from a particularly vindictive stock photo company. Then it’s much, much more expensive to ask forgiveness, and they probably won’t give it to you anyway.
The following is an unfortunately true story that we’ve encountered far too often here at MWD Web…
In the beginning, there was the Web. And upon the Web, the Shady Practices, Inc. firm did create a site for their client. And their client was known as Hap Less Ltd. And the site was dull and without character. And they spoke among themselves, saying, “Let us go onto yon internet and find some smokin’ pictures!” And they did venture forth and lo, they discovered a site by Sensational Upper End, crammed chock full of photos available for sale. And they saw that the photos were good. And on the second day, they said, “Let there be piracy!” And they did take from their neighbor that which was rightfully their neighbor’s, without paying their fair share for the images, nor for their usage thereof. And Shady Practices, Inc. did put those ill-gotten photos upon their client’s site. And Hap Less Ltd. looked upon the face of their site, and they saw that it was beautiful to behold. “Let there be a big old paycheck for Shady Practices!” they said, and it was so. And Shady Practices did depart from the land, to plunder for other, as-yet undiscovered sites.
And in the third year it came to pass that Sensational Upper End found their stolen images upon the Hap Less site, and they did rage against the iniquity of it all. And there was war in cyberspace. A legion of lawyers descended upon Hap Less Ltd, and they did inflict eight hundred and sixty five miseries upon their prey. And though they did hire a reputable Web firm to replace the pictures with honestly obtained images; still in the end, Hap Less had not a leg to stand upon, for SUE had devoured them even to the very bones. Behold, Hap Less had been SUEd right out of existence; and there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth, and its name was spoken no more.
OK, so that might be a little on the dramatic side, but you get the point. On more than one occasion, we’ve inherited a site from another firm, only to find out (via a sternly worded letter) that one or more images on the site had in fact been stolen from a stock photography provider. Even better, said stock photo shop was demanding a hefty fee for the infringement – many times more than it would have cost for the original dev shop to just pay for the darn image in the first place. In one particular case, the former Web shop wasn’t even in business anymore, so the financial responsibility fell squarely on their former client instead.
The lessons in all of this are simple.
- Don’t steal!
- Know where the photos on your site came from.
If your Web services provider found the photos for you, make sure they fit into one of three categories:
- Original photography taken specifically for your project (the best option!)
- Duly purchased stock photography
- Freely available imagery from a site like compfight.com, properly attributed and paying attention to the usage rules for each photo
The alternative is a nasty letter from unfriendly lawyers, and no one wants to be on the receiving end of one of those.
Thus endeth the lesson for the day.
Photo by mkooiman