I am truly amazed at the quality of unsplash images and I have joined the site. I shall be uploading some of the many thousands of photos that I have taken in Africa (principally Zimbabwe).
This brings me onto two questions:
When I click the Unsplash link in the Resources menu, do I get the whole Unsplash site available to me or a sub-set and, if the latter who decides which ones are added?
If I use an image from Unsplash for my banner, is it actually placed into my site so that it is uploaded? When I view my page source I can see /rw_common/images/imagename.jpg for my logo file but I can’t find my Unsplash banner image within the site files. If it is linked from Unsplash then do I need to download it drop it into my template in order for it to be uploaded to the server?
I have heard a couple of horror stories of RW users being chased by copyright trolls, after being ‘baited’ by free images posted on there. And from the other perspective, of photographers having their works misused and abused. I would hope Realmac remove Unsplash support in RW9.
If you want to provide free images, consider doing it through your own website. Then you have complete control over the licensing and you can have clients request the release forms directly from you. Remember that a release form covers BOTH parties - both the supplier and the user of the photograph.
Thanks Will. When I signed up to Unsplash as a user, I read the Ts&Cs which specifically state that there is a free license to use the images as one wishes without limit apart from not trying to use them in a similar product or offering so I am a little surprised at your comments. I would appreciate clarity from RealMac about this …
I do agree about sharing my own via a website, I was looking at it in a reciprocal way - you give me yours and I will give you mine kind of thing.
It seems my one images are not high enough resolution to be acceptable in any case so they won’t be going anywhere!
I am no attorney, but from my knowledge, the Ts&Cs of Unsplash do not overrule any copyrights. So if pictures are placed in Unsplash, this might have happened without consent from the author, who can then challenge you. In Germany, this challeging is an industry for itself. Especially if you are using pictures with persons/people who are easily to be identified, you have to make sure you have a model release contract with each of them. I do not think Unsplash could provide one if asked - they just point to the one who uploaded the images. And this person might be long gone or very difficult to get a hand on.
So if you use these images, send a mail to the author and politely ask him to verify the usage of his pictures for your purposes.
In the US, you can be sued for anything by anybody. We have more lawyers than the rest of the world combined.
In the US, you have to be legally served to be sued. You can be served any legal notice via email unless you have agreed to be served that way. Otherwise, the party suing you has to prove that a legal action has been filed(usually by registered mail or a process server).
Copywrite Trolling
Copywriting trolls are on a fishing expedition. They post images on servers like unsplash and then remove them and use image software to look for the pictures on websites.
They then look for contact information and send emails demanding payments or else. If you reply, they have a nibble and will keep grasping for more. They depend on people’s fears of legal costs and fines. They rely on you willing to settle.
I don’t personally use services like unsplash a lot, but if I did and got some email saying I had violated a Copywrite, I would probably ignore the notice and remove the photo in question.
If you can prove you got the image from unsplash, then the Copywrite violation fight becomes theirs, not yours. So if you want to play it safe and still use services like Unsplash, then serve the image from their server, not yours.
You can do that in Rap[idWeaver 8 resources by right-clicking the image in unsplash and copy URL. Then use the URL in a warehouse stack.
Also, with stacks 4, if you drag the image to a stacks page directly from the unsplash section of resources, it will serve the image from Unsplash, not your server.
