Typical Phone Conversation:
Client: “Yeah, did you get the pictures I sent over?”
Me: “Um, yes I did. A lot of them are kinda small. Where did you get them?”
Client: “I got them from Google. You can just make them bigger, can’t you?”
Me: “Well, not really. I can make something bigger smaller, but going the other way usually looks pretty bad. I can’t use these pictures, tho. They belong to someone.”
Client: “No they don’t. I got them from Google. They’re on the internet, so they’re free, right?”
Me: “Not exactly. Google looks at websites and pulls the search results from websites. When you use Google Image Search, what it’s showing you is images from other websites that are owned by other people. It’d be kinda like someone finding a picture from your website and using it on theirs.”
Client: “oh…”
To the more web-savvy of you, this might seem like a dumb conversation, but it happens a lot. Many people assume that just because you can find it online means you can use it for whatever you like. If you’re one of those, it’s no fault of your own, really, but now you know.
Say it with me: “Google Image Search is not a good source for stock photography.”