Recent data shows that Internet users upload and/or share 1.8 billion photos per day.
That’s crazy.
And the numbers continue to trend up.
We live in a great time. People seem naturally hungry for information and today’s technology allows us to access and share more information than ever before.
Information comes in many different forms including text, images, audio, video, etc.
People are creating more content and we’re also sharing other people’s content.
And that’s where we get some interesting questions.
What Content Can You Share & Use?
There is one school of thought that if something is shared online in the public that it is free for anyone to use, share or whatever.
That brings up some moral questions on how people feel about taking credit or using content that others have created.
So a good rule of thumb is that even though you can easily use a photo or song or something it doesn’t mean you should and there are some legal issues than can and do arise from doing that.
A better route to take is to keep yourself in the safe zone when it comes to sharing and using content that you didn’t create yourself. This will limit your selection of content somewhat, but you’ll likely avoid potential legal headaches.
Here are a few common and safe ways to share and use content.
Creative Commons & Free-Use Content
Creative Commons is an organization that encourages use and sharing of content. It’s an “agreement” between content producers and those that want to use and share content.
And when I talk about using and sharing content I mean doing so in a number of ways including on your website, print material, social media and many other media channels.
When a producer puts their content under a Creative Commons license they are giving users and sharers permission to use that content with a few caveats. Those caveats often include providing the producer with some kind of credit.
For example, you might use a photo that someone has put under Creative Commons and in return you link to the photographer’s website under the photo or somewhere so that it’s obvious to viewers who the photographer is.
There are different levels to Creative Commons. Some producers allow you to alter content while others don’t. Some require specific attribution while others don’t and so on.
Sometimes you can skip the Creative Commons business and work agreements with websites or the producer themselves or the owner of content.
This can often require no attribution. A popular website setup in this way is Unsplash that has a number of great photos available for no attribution.
Purchased Content
Another common route to take is to purchase content.
You can purchase content in a number of different ways. A common way is to purchase stock photos for use on your website, social media and on other media channels.
It’s also common to have someone write content for your website or to have someone help you create videos or podcasts.
Some hire professional photographers to take photos that are owned by the company or brand.
At our wedding a couple years ago the photographer had a few different options, but my wife and I opted for the option that gave us full ownership of the photos. We could print any photos we wanted and really own the photos and use them however we wanted. It cost extra for this right, but we felt it was the best way to go in the long run.
Companies often do the same with all kinds of content.
Purchased content often gives you the best situation because you can use it exactly as you want without attribution.
And it’s often worth it.
A first step example would be stock photographer. That can work great and it’s not terribly expensive, but if you really want to be personal to your business it might make sense to hire a professional photographer to take photos of your own.
In both cases you purchase the content, but the more you pay the better the content usually gets especially when you pay to make it more personal and unique to your brand.
Conclusion
Using and sharing content online is important today and it’s going to be more important in the future. You need to know what you can and cannot share and use on various media channels including your own website and on social media.
Social media is an interesting place because people freely share content that maybe isn’t theirs. I don’t think it’s a huge issue, but when you’re a company you can open yourself up to more potential legal issues.
So it’s always good to know the rules that we covered above regarding using content with some kind of Creative Commons or free-use content. Or you could go the safest route with purchasing or creating the content on your own.
Conclusion #2
And a final thought I have is on the content you create.
If you create original content and publish it online the odds are high that at some point you will see someone else using that content. It can feel like they’re stealing from you, but that’s kind of the world we live in today. You can get upset about it and chase it down even with legal actions, but is it really worth it?
To me, you only have so much energy to give and if someone is using your content in some way it will almost always be more worth your time to ignore it and focus on yourself and what you can control. In most cases people know where the original content comes from and you’ll be credited.
