Can I Use Images From Google?

Can You Use Images From Google? The Short Answer

If you are wondering whether you can use images from Google, the honest answer is: not just because Google shows them to you. Google Images is a search engine. Every picture in it lives on someone else’s website, and almost all of them belong to someone, usually the photographer, an illustrator or an agency that licenses their work.

Why Images on Google Are Not Free to Use

Under the Berne Convention, which most countries have joined, copyright arises automatically. In the US, a copyright notice has not been required for works published since March 1, 1989. So an image with no name, no watermark and no © line is not "unclaimed". It is simply unlabeled.

Using it anyway can be costly. In the US, a photographer who registered the photo in time can ask for statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work, and up to $150,000 if the infringement was willful (17 U.S.C. § 504). The UK and most of Europe have no US-style statutory damages, but owners can still claim damages or a license fee, demand the image be removed and send takedown notices to your host. Photographers and agencies do search the web for their images, and demand letters for a single blog photo are common.

Many images do carry a clue to their owner. Learn to spot them:

Some images carry their owner’s name in the file itself, too. Google can show the creator, credit line and copyright notice from a photo’s metadata, when the site has kept it. See copyright in photo metadata for what those fields hold.

How to Use Google Images’ Usage Rights Filter

Google Images has a filter that narrows results to images whose sites have published license information. On a computer:

1. 1
   Search on Google Images

   Go to images.google.com and search as usual.

2. 2
   Open Tools

   Select Tools, below the search box.

3. 3
   Choose a license type

   Select Usage rights, then Creative Commons licenses or Commercial & other licenses.

4. 4
   Open the image and read the license

   Select an image, then License details below it. This takes you to the page where the owner explains how the image may be used.

5. 5
   Check the source page itself

   Confirm the license on the site that hosts the image, and that the uploader really owns it.

The two options mean very different things. Creative Commons licenses are usually free, but almost all of them require credit, and some forbid commercial use or edited versions. Commercial & other licenses usually means the image is for sale, through a stock library or the photographer.

This is how the common licenses compare:

For the details of each license, see Creative Commons licenses explained.

What About Fair Use?

Fair use is the reason many people assume they can use images from Google. It is real, but much narrower than its reputation. It is a US doctrine, it is decided case by case on four factors, and it is usually argued after someone has been accused of infringement.

• Uses that are more likely to be fair: criticizing or commenting on the image itself, news reporting about the image, and some teaching and research uses.
• Uses that rarely are: illustrating a blog post, decorating a website, advertising a product, or posting the photo on social media because it looks good. These are the same uses the photographer licenses to paying customers.
• Myths that do not help: giving credit, being non-commercial, or changing the image a little does not make a use fair on its own.

Outside the US, there is usually no general fair use at all. The UK has "fair dealing" for fixed purposes, and its exception for reporting current events specifically excludes photographs. EU countries apply a list of exceptions that each country implements in its own way. For the four factors and the Warhol ruling, read fair use and photos.

How to Check Whether You Can Use an Image

1. 1
   Visit the page, not just the preview

   Open the site that hosts the image. Look for a photographer credit, a license, a terms page or a "licensing" link.

2. 2
   Trace it back to the original

   The page you found may be a copy. A reverse image search with Google Lens, TinEye or Bing shows other pages that use the same image, which often leads to the photographer or the stock library. See how reverse image search works.

3. 3
   Read the license against your use

   Check whether it allows commercial use, edits, and your medium. A license for a blog post may not cover print, ads or merchandise.

4. 4
   Ask, and keep the answer

   Email the owner with the image, where it will appear, for how long and whether it is commercial. Keep their written reply. Many photographers say yes for a credit or a fee.

5. 5
   If you cannot find the owner, move on

   An unknown owner can still turn up later. Use an image whose rights are clear instead. For each check in more depth, including metadata and Copyright Office records, see how to check if an image is copyrighted.

People in a photo raise a separate question. Even with a license for the photo, using someone’s likeness to advertise a product can need their consent (see do you need a model release), and logos and artworks in the frame can bring rights of their own.

Where to Find Images You Can Use

These sources publish clear terms. Each one still has rules, so read them once before you rely on them.

• Check the license of each image, not just the site’s general policy. Unsplash also sells Unsplash+ images under separate terms, and Openverse says plainly that it does not verify the licenses it indexes.
• Government sites host other people’s photos too. A credit to a private photographer or agency on a .gov page means the § 105 rule does not cover that image, and state and foreign governments have their own rules.
• Credit openly licensed images properly. For Creative Commons, that means title, author, source and license, often shortened to TASL. How to credit a photo has examples for print, web and social posts.

Buying a license is the other dependable route, from a stock library or straight from the photographer. How photo licensing works explains what a license covers, which is useful from either side of the deal.

If You Already Used an Image From Google

It happens often, and it is fixable. If you are not sure about an image on your site, either license it now or take it down and replace it with one you have the rights to.

If you receive a takedown notice or a demand letter, do not ignore it. Check whether the sender really owns the image and whether the amount is reasonable for the use. For a large claim, a short consultation with a copyright lawyer is usually worth it. Removing the image does not undo past use, but it stops the problem from growing.

For Photographers: Make Ownership Obvious

The reverse is true too. When your photos turn up in Google Images, the easier you make it to see who owns them, the fewer people can claim they did not know. Three habits help:

• A visible watermark with your name or website on the copies you post. It survives screenshots and tells people who to ask.
• Copyright and creator metadata in every file you export.
• License information on your site, so Google can show License details for your images and send buyers to the right page.

Watermark.ws adds a text or logo watermark to a whole batch of photos at once, with a saved template so every upload carries the same mark. It is free to try in the browser, with no signup.