Premium Images - Can they do IP claim?

[EternalFun]

Hey, I found some Shutterstock images online each with watermarked removed "perfectly". No one can even tell that it's from Shutterstock as every tiny bit of watermark is removed and the images look perfect.

So, what I wanna know is can I use these on my blog or merch or anywhere else without getting any infringement or something? Because their watermark is removed perfectly and I don't know how can they prove that these images belong to them?

 

[EternalFun]

Bumping. Anyone can shed some light on this?

 

[Edgester]

Bumping. Anyone can shed some light on this?

Nope you can't. It doesn't matter if you successfully removed a watermark from a photo. The law states if you didn't get photographer permission to use it, you have still breached copyright, and are liable to be prosecuted. You are talking about stealing a photographer's income, you can bet they will enforce their copyright seriously and go after you. Besides billing you for the photo they can also seek further damages in court if you get caught.

 

[Kendoka]

Problem is, according to my knowledge, you will receive authorized rights/licenses by purchasing a stock photo from any stock photo providers. That means, whenever someone has any doubt of your using of a stock photo, you have the documents to show him your rights. However, if you are using a stock photo not purchased by you, you'll face problem somehow.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm also not 100% sure of this.

 

[EternalFun]

Nope you can't. It doesn't matter if you successfully removed a watermark from a photo. The law states if you didn't get photographer permission to use it, you have still breached copyright, and are liable to be prosecuted. You are talking about stealing a photographer's income, you can bet they will enforce their copyright seriously and go after you. Besides billing you for the photo they can also seek further damages in court if you get caught.

Problem is, according to my knowledge, you will receive authorized rights/licenses by purchasing a stock photo from any stock photo providers. That means, whenever someone has any doubt of your using of a stock photo, you have the documents to show him your rights. However, if you are using a stock photo not purchased by you, you'll face problem somehow.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I'm also not 100% sure of this.

You both just said about ip infringement. I know that. What I am asking is that how will they trace? This is the internet and it's huge. How will they know today afternoon that I am using their images in that particular site. They don't have any tracking device, right?

Another thing what if I modify the stock image by a bit, like changing the color and add some extra words and something like that? I mean completely change the photo but keeping the theme to be more or less same?

 

[DigitalWizard]

You both just said about ip infringement. I know that. What I am asking is that how will they trace? This is the internet and it's huge. How will they know today afternoon that I am using their images in that particular site. They don't have any tracking device, right?

Another thing what if I modify the stock image by a bit, like changing the color and add some extra words and something like that? I mean completely change the photo but keeping the theme to be more or less same?

Plenty of ways, they're services such as tineye that people use to track down infringement.

 

[Kendoka]

You both just said about ip infringement. I know that. What I am asking is that how will they trace? This is the internet and it's huge. How will they know today afternoon that I am using their images in that particular site. They don't have any tracking device, right?

Another thing what if I modify the stock image by a bit, like changing the color and add some extra words and something like that? I mean completely change the photo but keeping the theme to be more or less same?

Hmmmm, good question. I'm willing to know the answer as well...

 

[loving doll]

Hey, I found some Shutterstock images online each with watermarked removed "perfectly". No one can even tell that it's from Shutterstock as every tiny bit of watermark is removed and the images look perfect.

So, what I wanna know is can I use these on my blog or merch or anywhere else without getting any infringement or something? Because their watermark is removed perfectly and I don't know how can they prove that these images belong to them?

sir watermark is not an issue main thing is shuterstock have rights reserved for images on behalf of clients.It will be ok till manually review will be.If they notice you are using images from them then might be they will send DMC

 

[FlyingCat]

companies like shutterstock have bots that spider and analyse images for infringing content, removing the watermark will not make the image any less detectable (in fact that is one of the things they look for), nor will adjusting colours or rotation/flipping.

For example, getty employ picscout to detect unauthorised use of their images

 

[Edgester]

Most pros put author, copyright details in the original TIFF data before exporting to JPEG file and submitting to an agency.