If you see an image on the internet and you're 100% certain that the image is in the public domain...?

Question

is it okay to take it and use it on your website?

Or do you have to find another source for the image?

Yes, I would be 100% sure.

I know how to look up the copyrights for images, I just don't know what sources are okay to take them from.

No really, I'm 100% certain about these images.

The artist has been dead for almost 200 years and the images are well known to be in the public domain.

I was just wondering about the source of the image....

Yes, you can look up an image and find out if the copyright has expired.

I know how to do that and I am 100% certain that the images that I want are in the public domain -

my question was about the source of the image :)

Answer 1

If you find an image you would like to use, the best thing is to just write and ask the website owner if you can use it. If it's public domain they will let you know. :-)

Answer 2

The only ways to be certain that an image is in the public domain is if it's old enough to have run the copyright period in every nation in the world that might see your website after you use it, or if it has a "This image is public domain" on it from the copyright holder.

You can't "look up" a copyright because every image becomes copyright when it's made. Registering a copyright isn't necessary to make it valid.

Richard

Answer 3

Copyrights do not have to be registered in order to be valid. So someone could claim rights to an image even though you don't find it when you look it up.

As the previous poster stated, the only way to be 100% certain is if you find a registration that has lapsed into the public domain.

But if you find nothing at all, you are risking a lawsuit.

Answer 4

The only way you can be close to certain it is in the public domain is a statement to that effect directly applying to the image. Even then you can't really be sure.