Imagine this; your a graphic designer hired to develop a new website for a clothing company. They give you their color scheme, verbiage, and style they are want on the site. They also want images of sexy women and men dressed in vintage clothing with a rock'n'roll feel to it. The problem is they cannot afford a photographer to conduct a photoshoot for these images. What should you do? Should you just troll around the internet copying images to your desktop that fit the description of what they had in mind? The answer is no. That would be stealing intellectual property from a photographer who lives off the money that he/she makes from taking such images. What you should do is send a letter/email to the photographer who shot the orignal images you are interested in using for the site.
This is the correct way of doing business and it also keeps you safe from getting a lovely cease and desist letter in the mail. Even if the photographer says "sure go ahead and use whatever images you want" you should still send a permission form to get a signature for use. Remember "the weakest ink is stronger than the best memory". There are many types of forms for these types of situatuations. Here is a short list: Getting Permission to Use Text ,Getting Permission to Use
Photographs, Photo Permission
Agreement, Getting Permission to Use Artwork, Agreement to Use Artwork in Motion Picture, Getting
Permission to Use Music, Notice of
Intention to Obtain Compulsory License for Making and Distributing Sound
Recordings, Music Synchronization and Videogram License Agreement, Website Permissions, Academic and Educational Permissions, Getting Permission to
Use Trademarks, Art
and Merchandise Licenses.
As you can see there is a specific permission form for pretty much any ocassion. All of which will keep you out of jail and safe from legal consequences.
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