Not sure whether the images on your business website are properly licensed? Learn how image copyright works in Australia, what to check, and how to audit an existing website.
If your business website has been online for a few years, there is a good chance you don’t know exactly where every image on it came from.
Some may have been purchased from a stock photography library. Others might have been supplied by a web developer, marketing agency, employee or supplier. A few may simply have been found online years ago and uploaded without anyone thinking much about copyright.
That can create a problem.
Australian businesses are increasingly having to deal with questions about the ownership and licensing of images used on their websites. Organisations including PicRights and Copyright Agent use technology to identify photographs appearing online on behalf of photographers, news agencies and other rightsholders. The Australian Copyright Agency has specifically warned that Australian businesses and individuals are receiving approaches concerning allegedly unlicensed photographs.
So how do you work out whether the images on your business website are properly accounted for?
Can I use an image I found online on my business website?
You should not assume that an image is free to use simply because you can find it online.
In Australia, copyright protection generally arises automatically when an original work such as a photograph is created. There is no requirement for the image to carry a copyright symbol or be registered before copyright can apply.
That means an image appearing on:
- Google Images;
- another business’s website;
- a news website;
- Pinterest;
- Facebook;
- Instagram; or
- a blog
is not necessarily available for your business to copy and publish.
IP Australia specifically cautions businesses that material found online may still be protected and recommends obtaining permission where required and keeping records of permissions and licences.
Read IP Australia’s guidance on avoiding IP infringement
Can my business use images from Google Images?
Google Images is a search engine, not an image licensing library.
When you search Google Images, Google may show photographs belonging to photographers, stock libraries, publishers, businesses and other copyright owners.
Finding the photograph through Google does not, by itself, give your business permission to publish it.
This can be particularly important for older business websites.
Someone may have searched for an image five or ten years ago, downloaded it and added it to a blog post. The employee who uploaded it may have left. The website may since have been rebuilt twice.
Nobody currently working in the business may know where the image originated.
But the image is still online.
What about stock photographs?
Stock photography can be an excellent source of website images, provided the appropriate licence has been obtained.
The difficulty often comes years later.
A business might know that an image looks like a stock photograph but no longer know:
- which stock library it came from;
- whose account purchased it;
- whether the licence was purchased by the business or an agency;
- which type of licence applied;
- whether the licence covered the particular use; or
- where the original invoice or licence record is stored.
This does not automatically mean the image was used without permission.
It means the business may have a provenance problem: it cannot readily demonstrate where the image came from or why it is entitled to use it.
That is something worth investigating before a dispute arises.
What if my web developer supplied the images?
This is one of the first places businesses should look.
Website images may have been sourced by:
- web developers;
- graphic designers;
- advertising agencies;
- freelance marketers;
- SEO providers;
- social media managers; or
- former employees.
If an outside provider sourced an image, ask whether they can provide the original licence or explain its source.
It is also worth checking your original contract or project files.
The fact that somebody else uploaded the photograph does not necessarily answer the question of what rights your business has to continue using it.
Is giving the photographer credit enough?
Not necessarily.
There is an important difference between attribution and permission.
You can acknowledge who created a photograph without necessarily having permission to reproduce it.
IP Australia expressly identifies the idea that giving credit automatically prevents infringement as a common misconception.
So a caption such as:
Photo: Jane Smith
does not, by itself, establish your right to use Jane Smith’s photograph.
How can I check whether an image is copyrighted?
There isn’t a single search where you can upload a photograph and receive a definitive answer saying:
Copyrighted: Yes / No.
Instead, the more useful question is:
Where did this image come from, and what evidence do we have that the business is entitled to use it?
That investigation might involve:
- Checking old invoices and stock photography accounts.
- Searching emails for the image filename or photographer.
- Asking the web developer or agency that added it.
- Reviewing metadata embedded in the image.
- Performing a reverse image search.
- Looking for the photograph on stock licensing websites.
- Checking photographer or publisher websites.
- Finding any licence or permission originally supplied.
A reverse image search can be particularly useful because it may reveal where the same photograph appears elsewhere online.
However, it is important not to overstate what a reverse image search tells you.
Finding the image on Getty Images, Shutterstock or another stock library does not automatically prove your business is using it without a licence.
Equally, finding no matches does not prove that the image is free to use.
It is an investigative tool.
Why are old business websites particularly vulnerable?
Modern business websites accumulate a surprising amount of content.
Consider a business that has published two blog articles a month for ten years.
That alone could mean hundreds of images.
Add:
- staff profile photos;
- service pages;
- landing pages;
- case studies;
- promotional banners;
- old event photos;
- supplier images;
- product photography; and
- several generations of website design,
and a relatively ordinary SME may have hundreds or thousands of image files associated with its website.
The problem is not necessarily deliberate copying.
It is record keeping.
Businesses tend to carefully keep records for things such as software subscriptions, domain names and major contracts.
Image licences are much more easily forgotten.
Copyright enforcement is becoming increasingly automated
Technology has made it much easier to search the internet for matching photographs.
The Australian Copyright Agency has publicly noted that organisations including PicRights and Copyright Agent contact businesses and individuals regarding photographs they say have been used without appropriate licensing. According to the Copyright Agency, these organisations act for rightsholders that include major photography and news organisations.
Read the Copyright Agency’s information about PicRights and Copyright Agent
This changes the risk equation for businesses.
A photograph sitting unnoticed on a six-year-old blog article may previously have attracted very little attention.
Automated image-matching technology makes finding that photograph considerably easier.
What should businesses do about existing website images?
Deleting every photograph from your website isn’t a sensible solution.
Neither is assuming there must be a problem with every image whose original invoice can’t immediately be located.
A more practical approach is to audit what is actually there.
For each substantive image, you ideally want to know:
- What is the image?
- Where is it being used?
- Where did it come from?
- Do we have licence or ownership evidence?
- Does anything about the image warrant further investigation?
- Should the image be retained, documented, replaced or reviewed?
The important part is reducing a potentially enormous website into a manageable list of images that actually require attention.
How does a website image copyright audit work?
Upper Gully Digital’s Website Image Copyright Audit is designed to help businesses understand the images already being used across their websites.
Rather than manually opening every page, we use technology to crawl the website and build an inventory of its images.
We can then:
- identify where images appear;
- group duplicate and resized versions;
- exclude obvious interface assets from unnecessary investigation;
- review available image information;
- perform reverse image searches on selected images;
- identify possible external or stock image sources;
- record licence and provenance information; and
- identify images where further action may be sensible.
The result is a practical image register rather than simply a list of hundreds of URLs.
What happens if an image can’t be verified?
An image that cannot immediately be verified is not automatically an infringement.
There may be a perfectly legitimate explanation.
For example, the licence may be sitting in an old employee’s email account or an advertising agency may have purchased the photograph on the business’s behalf.
Depending on the circumstances, the next step might simply be to:
- find the original invoice;
- obtain information from a former supplier;
- document the existing permission;
- replace the image with one whose provenance is clear;
- obtain an appropriate licence; or
- seek legal advice.
The advantage of doing this proactively is that the business can investigate the issue without the pressure of responding to a demand.
What if I’ve already received a copyright demand?
If your business has already received correspondence alleging copyright infringement, that is different from conducting a preventative website audit.
Do not assume that receiving a demand automatically means the amount claimed is payable.
But don’t simply ignore it either.
A lawyer can assess matters including:
- who claims to own the photograph;
- the basis on which the claim is being made;
- how your business obtained the image;
- whether any licence or permission existed;
- how the image was used;
- the amount being demanded; and
- the appropriate response.
A website audit may still be useful for investigating the rest of the site, but the existing demand should be dealt with separately.
The best time to check your website images is before there is a problem
For many businesses, nobody has ever sat down and asked:
Where did all of these images actually come from?
That was relatively easy to ignore when finding potential image misuse required somebody to stumble across your website manually.
It is becoming much easier to identify matching images at scale.
A relatively simple audit can give your business a much clearer picture of what is on its website, which images are properly documented and which ones deserve a closer look.
Find out what’s on your website
Upper Gully Digital’s Website Image Copyright Audit scans your website, identifies the substantive images being used and helps you work out which ones may require further investigation.
Upper Gully Digital provides website auditing and compliance services. The audit does not constitute legal advice or determine whether copyright infringement has occurred. Where legal advice is required, you should obtain advice from a qualified legal practitioner.