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Incredibly painful
Mistake #1
Thinking that the worst thing that can happen to you if you "steal" an image is that you can be forced to pay what you would have had to pay anyway...
Think again. Copyright laws provide for statutory penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement. "Borrow" a picture that you should have paid $49 for? Who's gonna know, right? Somebody catches you, you pony up the $49 bucks, right? Nope. You have infringed a legal copyright, and THAT's what they're going to come after you for: $150,000.
Incredibly painful
Mistake #2
Thinking, hey, let THEM prove I DIDN'T pay for the picture.
Intellectual Property issues are different from a lot of things in the rest of the world. ("Intellectual Property" is how the law describes things like books, poems, symphonies and...photos.) In the rest of the world, if somebody thinks you stole something, they have to prove you did. In the world of copyright infringement, you have to prove that you DIDN'T. Yep.
Let's say, for example, that someone sees one of their pictures used on your website. They can prove that it is, indeed, their picture. They own the copyright on it. They can make a demand that you prove that you have legally acquired the right to use the picture. If you can't prove it (usually in the form of a paid invoice) you're in big trouble. Very big. (See "Incredibly painful mistake #1", above.)
Incredibly painful
Mistake #3
Thinking to yourself, "Hey, I'll just use Photoshop to remove all these pesky little copyright identifiers on this picture. Who's gonna know?"
"Watermarking" involves digitally embedding into an image a symbol that identifies the copyright holder.
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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 makes it a criminal offense to remove watermarks meant to protect copyright. Many people don't realize that under U.S. copyright law, it is specifically illegal to remove a watermark from a photo. Not only is the act of removal prohibited, the courts assume that the very attempt indicates a willful intent to violate somebody's copyright. And that's something the courts come down really hard on. [See "Incredibly Painful Mistakes" numbers 1 & 2, above.]
Incredibly painful
Mistake #4
Thinking, hey, I'm too "small potatoes" for anyone to care.
To the contrary. The Internal Revenue Service figured this out a long time ago, which is why they focus on the small cheaters, not the big ones: There are a lot more "small fry" than there are "big cheeses", and the message you send when you attend to the smaller entities is a powerful word-of-mouth engine. If you're doing a little out-of-the-way website or a local-distribution brochure and thinking you'll just appropriate a few images because, after all, who's going to care... guess what? You are smack in the bull's-eye, exactly the "profile" that is being targeted.
So, if you have larceny in your heart, think twice...!
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars! (That's once.)
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars! (That's twice.)
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