Copyrights on Images for Presentations
Until recently, finding high-quality images for use on presentations used to be an uphill task for many business owners. This was because they usually could not afford the time to go around searching, or may just not be interested in investing their meager resources on taking professional photographs for their adverts and branding campaigns. Today, however, the story has changed.
Thanks to the Internet, there are several billions of images available for you to utilize on your website, in fliers, handbills or for use in your presentations. However, there are established measures and restrictions protecting the owner and creators of these images and hence, their use in public advertising. Copyright laws ensure that you cannot use images that are protected by a copyright licensed to an individual or company without getting legal permission (usually in the form of a written release document) to do so.
While it looks quite easy to just go online, Google an image, and save it to your local drive for use in presentations, it often poses a high risk for your business, financially and in terms of your brand’s reputation. Most times, some images have a copyright watermark attached or linked to the body of the image. While this is not required by law for copyrighted images, some pictures are watermarked and most times, many are not. However, it is important to look out for these copyrighted images so that you do not breach or infringe any proprietary law.
Types of Copyright Licenses on Images for Presentations
Usually, copyrighted images can come with several types of licenses. In this post, we have listed some types of copyright laws binding the use of images, especially for presentations that might help you choose which is best for your business. Listed here are some definitions of these copyright licenses, starting from the least to the most restrictive:
Public Domain Images
These are images that are no longer protected by copyright laws because they are old, or because the owners of the images have permitted them to be used by the public for free or without permission.
Creative Commons Images
This refers to many kinds of sublicenses restricting the use of images in presentations. Some licenses allow you to use the image without changing it, others allow use as long as you credit the original source or owner, or allow it to be modified within specific guidelines. Therefore, you need to sure of which form of creative commons license that protects the image you want to use before using it.
Royalty-Free Images
Contrary to beliefs, royalty-free images are not totally free-of-charge! The “royalty-free” clause simply means that you do not pay for each individual use after you have paid for the image initially, that is, you can pay a once-and-for-all fee for the image and use it on presentations as many times as you want.
Rights-Managed Images
These are images that can be used for a specific number of times for a fixed fee. Once a rights-managed image has been used for the specified number of times, the user has to pay an additional fee to remain in compliance with the agreement.
