With blogs gaining ground in the media, there are many companies now on the lookout for copyright infringement. Shannon of Pierce Mattie Public Relations reports that the blogger of Perez Hilton is being sued for $7.6 million dollars by X17 Inc., for using pictures by the Los Angeles photo agency. 
Sure, it’s easy to say that everybody else does it, so it should be ok, but the reality of it is that you are using someone’s picture without giving them credit. I learned my lesson awhile back when I used a picture from Blogging Project Runway and later received an email from an editor asking me to remove the picture. Now I’m pretty careful about giving credit whenever possible and asking permission to use images. Thank God that Coutorture lets us use their images for free, eh?
What are your thoughts?
Maria, I am glad you brought this issue up. The same goes for writers as well. The Internet is unbelievably filled with people misappropriating other people's work.
This is especially true on celebrity blogs. People just copy the pictures from other people's sites. It will be interesting to see what happens with that lawsuit.
Posted by: WORTH A BILLION | December 26, 2006 10:45 PM | Permalink to Comment