Just because you found it online - does NOT make it public domain, or free to use!! This is the number one mistake of people trying out POD sites for the first time. You will waste a lot of time (and possibly money on lawyers when your sued) over these illegal images.
This article does not intend to explain all the laws, and should not be taken as legal advice, it is simply a basic introduction to some of the do's and don'ts to selecting images for use on products for sale at PODs.
It will go over some simple rules to keep in mind when adding and creating images for your online store or gallery.
To begin with, every image or photograph consists on 2 parts which must BOTH belong to you, or you must have the written rights to.
1st the image itself the physical photograph (or digital file) or drawing. You must own not only the physical image but also the rights to reproduce for resale. simply buying a ansel adams does not give you the legal rights to reproduce, distribute or resell the image, you must purchase or receive the rights to do that also.
2nd you must have the rights to the object in the image or the subject of the image, that is who or what is in the image or in the background of the image, even the logo on the clothing or stores in the background apply in this case. This also applies to all recognizable people who may be in the foreground or background of the image.
When you are using an image in whole or as part of a product for sale, even if you took the photograph or drew the picture you need to make sure the subject of your image also belongs to you.
This means if you are not the celebrity or you own the company in the image you cannot use their image in whole or in part.
This means even if you draw it yourself or take the photograph yourself you cannot use the image in a for sale capacity.
So you can take a photo of you are your friends in front of let's just say McDonalds, it is legal to take the photo and have the photo and give away the photo to your friends or share it online. However you cannot place that image on a Tshirt to sell to others on a POD or website, or even to purchase it yourself through a print on demand printer.
Now you may ask why you cannot just purchase it for yourself, well the key is in that question, you are still purchasing it, and it is illegal for that printer to sell you the image with McDonalds in it, the same is it would be illegal for you to sell the image to others.
This applies to sports figures, movie stars, anyone who is famous for any reason with one exception. Politicians are public figures and therefore by law they are legal to use - with conditions.
You may use the image of a public figure ONLY if you own the image, which means you cannot simply go take any image of them from any site, because the original photographer still owns the rights to the picture itself, even thought the subject of the picture is legal to use. this goes back to the rules above where both parts of the image must be legal.
Many people mistakenly believe that if the image is online then it free to use, as you know by the rules above this is not true. The act of placing an image online does NOT transfer the rights to reproduce for resale.
Additionally there are many sites in which people mistakenly or intentionally claim to be transferring the legal rights of images, most commonly this is done by placing the words "public domain" on an image. Many sites such as Wikimedia, allow people to post images to their site as public domain. While the members are required to certify that the image is factually public domain, many people still place images on this site claiming they own the rights or that it is public domain incorrectly, because they do not understand the above rules. They mistakenly believe that because they saw it somewhere once that it is public, this is not true.
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