You should read and understand these terms on using the image bank.
Understanding image copyright
Copyright is a form of protection provided by law to the authors of ‘original works of authorship’; this includes images and copyright is automatically granted to the creator of any image. The copyright of the images in LR’s photo library available for general use (universal access level) allow you to use these online and offline without restriction. Note some images are recommended only for internal use.
Just because an image is on the internet, it does not mean it is free to use. You should never download and use an image from a website, particularly from Google images. Apart from the fact that the picture size and quality are generally unsuitable for offline work, more importantly, you will not know what image restrictions or rights have been placed on the reuse by the copyright holders. Copyright holders are now using sophisticated image recognition software to scan public facing websites, including social media channels - and any documents on those websites – and other material videos, on and offline corporate literature and advertisements.
In recent years, LR has had to pay costs of nearly £6,000 for three small images misused on our public facing websites; two were inserted in PowerPoint presentations. Although these breaches were unintentional, use of an image without a valid licence is considered copyright infringement. Even if you only use an image for internal purposes, if you pass it on others may not realise they could infringe copyright by using it.
If you obtain an image from a legitimate source make sure you understand who owns the copyright and that you have permission to use it in your material. If the source has given permission for general use of the image by LR and you pass the image to someone else you should also let them know about the copyright. Note you should also be careful to use images obtained from clients according to any requirements they have given which may include crediting the copyright holder.
‘Royalty-free’ does not mean that the images are free; it is an industry phrase that refers to a licensing model where the user pays once and has the continuing right to use the image without additional royalty payments.
For more guidance on this topic see http://www.stockphotorights.com/ (site owned by Getty Images).
Storing images from the LR photo library
You should download and save files to your personal folders, not to any shared folders. Do not delete the image file name when you save images as you may receive notification about the withdrawl or expiration of images and by keeping the file name intact you will be able to find these more easily; you can add to the file name for your own purposes. For this reason you should also not pass images on to other employees; they should download the image from the library.
You should delete files from your personal folders once you have finished using them. You can always download them again from the library and this will help you to make sure you do not use images that have been withdrawn.
Use of image
You should check any details in the ‘use of image’ notes of an image for any guidance or restrictions on use. For example, to check if any employee named is still with LR or to let an LR employee know if you are using their photograph. Images of our employees should not be used in a negative manner or to illustrate negative messages.