celgins - 11:46 pm on Jan 16, 2013 (gmt 0)

I don't have any pics on my site. If I did, I wouldn't use stock photos that every visitor has one look at and realizes it's a pic from a stock photo site. I think it brands your site as mickey mouse unless one is very very careful.

Everyone has their own observations and opinions about stock photography and its use. Personally, I think most people are bombarded with images on the web, billboards, television ads, etc., and probably don't recognize the same models, scenes or images they may have seen previously.

And if you did want a stock photo, I'd still pay a local, probably amateur,photographer to do it.

That can be a lofty goal for some businesses. When I write an article about the top ten beach destinations for 2013, I would be hard pressed to find a photographer who lives near the coast, heads to a local beach, and snaps a shot of a family building sand castles. Why not just pay Getty or some other stock photo site $15 for an image? All the big advertising companies do it, and I don't think they're worried about being sued. And why should I if I have legally purchased an image, and have records of that purchase?

Go have a look at your site from 5 years ago. Can you prove right now that you have rights to every image on that version of your site?

As far as royalty-free and rights-managed photography is concerned, yes. I have purchased thousands of watermark-free, royalty-free and/or rights-managed photos over the years, and licensed (purchased) royalty-free photos can be used in a variety of ways, and for as long as you like. Of course, there are other rules and procedures, but using those images for web or print media is certainly valid.

Now, if someone copy/pastes one of my purchased images into Twitter, then they're in violation of my rights as a website owner (scraping), and the rights of the photographer (copyright).