I’m taking classes on various front-end web design topics. During a UX/UI design class a topic came up and I haven’t been able to find a clear answer on two questions. I’ve searched the posts here on sitepoint but couldn’t find a post that answered either question.
Is is OK to use any photo you find on the internet for a student website project which could be eventually be used as a portfolio piece? I’ve looked at the fair use concept and it says you could use an image under fair use if the purpose is educational, although not all educational use would be considered fair use IF by using the material you enable others access they wouldn’t otherwise have, i.e. there are exceptions to the educational fair use copyright exception. So my layman’s interpretation to a student website project is that you could probably use any photo as long as you didn’t end up using the website (with photo) as a portfolio piece in a commercial venture? Thoughts? And do you have any materials/papers/articles as reference material that directly outline student website project use of otherwise copyrighted material?
Second question is related to first, when you are working in a capacity as a website designer and you are creating mockups, either on the internet or as .docx or .pdfs, can you use ANY photo you find on the internet to do your design/mockups? Could you use photos from the competitor’s website to fill in your design and present it to clients and then swap the photos/images for properly licensed images when the website is actually developed? My layman’s interpretation of copyright laws and fair use is that this isn’t covered by fair use as the use is for a commercial purpose, although the likely hood that you will be “caught” is low, so the risk in using the images is low, which of course is different than saying the practice is legal. For those of you working in largish firms that have policies, what are the policies about using images for mockups?
Whenever you’re in doubt, assume the answer is No. There are some sites (like Unsplash.com) that explicitly let you use their images in any way you like. Some other let you pay for the rights, like Fotolia. Some say you can use their images if you provide a link to the original. But unless you’re sure, assume you can’t use the image for any purpose. (It’s safer that way.)
Private use if a different situation, though. You can copy images from the web and paste them all over your walls if you like. It’s when you start to use them publicly for your own purposes that the trouble starts. I wouldn’t think using them in mockups is a problem, as long as it’s not the finished product. Just beware of clients getting attached to things they can’t have!
(Also remember that no advice you get in a public forum has any legal standing whatsoever! )
Have you tried looking for images available under a creative commons licence. I know that Flickr has images there very well marked up from a licence perspective. You’d need to look into the different flavours of creative commons to be absolutely sure what you use is applicable to your purpose (accreditation for example), but you may well find something suitable that way.
means not using more than a small portion of the original - usually 10% of an image or the content of a web page or chapter of a book is the most you can claim as fair use for educational purposes as a maximum.
There are enough images available free to not need to steal images or edit just a small fraction of an image in order to claim fair use.
If you search the forums, you’ll find a number of topics we’ve had in the past discussing sources of free images; you might find some useful suggestions there.
Another good source for free images is pixabay.com, which allows you to use any image, without attribution, even for commercial purposes. (Just avoid the “sponsored images” on the site: they come from Shutterstock and are not free. They’re clearly watermarked, so you won’t have a problem identifying them.)
The key is, whenever you find an image you want to re-use, always read the license and understand what you can and can’t do with the image and any obligations that come with using it.
Another recent thread:-
Thank you all for your thoughts. If anyone is part of a largish design firm I would be interested in a firm’s policies. I agree with all the comments indicating that assume images are copyrighted and use images from sites that offer free images. Surprisingly my instructor has been quite inconsistent in his thoughts, varying from it’s OK to use CC images to it’s OK to use images from competitor’s websites, my head exploded on that one I don’t think he/she thought that comment through thoroughly
AS a side note, in my research I discovered that Getty and iStock have comp licenses, that you can use their watermarked images for 30 days as examples or in mockups, with limited audience I believe. You would have to read the licenses on their sites for details.
Again thank you all for the websites with free images available, will be very useful when designing mockups and looking for images for creating sites.
I’ve read that you have to be careful with Creative Commons as there is no way to prove you have a license through them. When I’ve purchased images from inexpensive stock websites, I’ve also download a license pdf containing purchase information with the image. For CC images I’ve read you should take a screenshot of the image and the license and keep that as sufficient proof that you got the image from CC and the exact license associated with the image when you downloaded it. I’ve read there are other ways somehow to register the fact, but I didn’t read the details.
With CC it is a common requirement to link to the original image and the license.
Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
The image owner has the right to remove the image or change the licensing, there is a risk of that. But it’s no different to any other free licensing, change may happen.
I suppose you are only 100% safe from such changes if either there is no copyright because it has expired, or you have paid and have legal contract of right of use.
There are some sites (like 
)