The legal aspect of using images taken from other sites on your site

Probably, almost every site owner is faced with the fact that sometimes it is necessary to upload some content to your site. And without hesitation, he goes to the nearest search engine to find the necessary materials, whether they are cute kittens or a drawing of a gearbox. Of course, the owner of the site vaguely suspects that this is not very correct on his part, therefore, to calm the soul, he doesn’t upload pictures to his hosting, but uses the originals from the sites where he borrowed them and took them.


And one day he receives a letter with an exemplary text: “ Dear friend, Dear domain owner! We are suing you for the illegal use of our images. Copies of the pages of the site with the illegally used image are already certified by a natarius, tremble".

The question arises - what now to do? It seems that we are not opposed to removing these materials, since they are asking for death threats . And it’s like they would go nafik - the Internet is free space, what we want is what we take.

Nevertheless, such claims may be justified: despite the fact that the pictures are not hosted on your hosting, showing them on your website, you actually bring the work (in this case, the images) to the public, which, according to paragraphs. 11, paragraph 2 of Article 1270 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, is the use of the work. Using the work without the permission of the copyright holder, regardless of whether the relevant actions are performed for profit or without such a purpose, is a violation of the exclusive right to the work.

Also, notarization of site pages is an acceptable way of recording evidence of a violation of the exclusive right to a work.

As for liability for violation of the exclusive right to a work, in the framework of civil proceedings in accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 1252 and Art. 1301 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the copyright holder may demand damages or compensation in the amount of from ten thousand rubles to five million rubles (the final amount is determined by the court) either in double the value of copies of the work or in double the cost of the right to use the work, determined on the basis of the price, which under comparable circumstances, it is usually charged for the lawful use of the work.

In addition, a fine of one thousand five hundred to two thousand rubles with the confiscation of counterfeit copies of works and phonograms, as well as materials and equipment used to reproduce them, is provided for the illegal use of works for the purpose of generating income, paragraph 1 of article 7.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses; and other instruments of an administrative offense.

Also, if the damage from the illegal use of works has exceeded 100,000 rubles, the law provides for criminal liability for the illegal use of works.

Thus, it would be most appropriate to try to get in touch with the complainant and propose that the situation be settled out of court. If this cannot be done, you can, for example, put a message for copyright holders on the site itself with a request to contact you regarding the removal of their images.

If the claimant requires not only to delete the photographs, but also to pay compensation, it is worth checking the person’s authority and making sure that his claims are justified.

Well, in the bottom line - in order to avoid such a situation, you should either conclude a written license agreement with the copyright holders of the works, or use photographs that are explicitly marked by the copyright holder as freely distributed.