Who Owns Your Images?

 By: Miles Peterson 
 
Like many business owners, you probably did not build your website yourself. You may have used a template driven site, maybe a friend of a friend, or a small design company. What you may not be aware of is that for every image that is on your site, you need to have the proper license to use and display the image or you risk liability to the proper owner.

How can you tell if your images are licensed for business use? This may be difficult, especially if you are no longer in contact with the person who built your site or if the work was done by a third-party in another country. If you took the picture yourself or if you purchased the image from a legitimate image retail site, then you're safe. On the other hand, the person who built your site may have taken the image off another site, found the image on Google images, or saved an image they saw on an artist's portfolio page. Images saved in this manner are not licensed for use in a business manner, and could subject you to a cease and desist order or, worse, demand for damages.

At Atomic8Ball, we provide the peace of mind in knowing that all imagery on your site is properly licensed. We maintain an ongoing relationship with all of our clients so that you can focus your attention on your business rather than on your website. I encourage all of you to proactively check the images on your web site, and if you aren't 100% sure about them, replace them with ones you are sure of.