just how much do i really need to worry about copyright infringement when i want to use an image on my website? especially if it is an image that is easily searchable on a site like google images and there is no visible copyright or logo on it?
@church_craig I think you do need to bear it in mind, otherwise it could bite you later on. Google images (and similar) will index and search everything unless explicitly told not to, and it doesn’t matter if the image itself doesn’t have a watermark or copyright logo on it — it is governed by the copyright applied to the site it is published on. go to the image site, and see if you can find a copyright notice in the footer, or similar.
Saying that, I don’t think it is that terrible to use a copyrighted image on your site if it is just a personal site, and you are just playing around; the worse you might get is a cease and desist order. But if you are using it to run a business, then it would probably be looked on more harshly.
There are some good sources of permissively licensed images and icons out there. flickr.com, and iconmonstr.com for example. And you can set an explicit option in Google Image search to search only for images licensed for reuse.
There are some good sources of permissively licensed images and icons out there. flickr.com, and iconmonstr.com for example.
Go to Pixabay where all the images are free to use for non commercial purposes. All you have to do is give credit to the creator/photographer.