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You may get sued big time if you aren’t careful with what you upload to Unsplash

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Unsplash has in a short time become a major player in the photo-sharing industry. 174,000 photographers have uploaded images to the site. The platform this month boasts 5,000 views and 27 downloads per second. (PER SECOND!) People download images for blogs, classes, and other purposes, but also for commercial use. There is a big debate in the industry asking if Unsplash is good or bad, but it is not what I want to talk about today. Today I want to talk about the legal risks you face when you upload work to Unsplash. Not as the end-user, but as the photographer.

Photographers use Unsplash for exposure because of the enormous traffic the site generates. A company may hire a photographer for commercial assignments or simply want to license a high-resolution version of an image it found on Unsplash.

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Couple stages wedding for reshoot because their wedding photographer used stock photos in her portfolio

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I have warned people multiple times to do their research before hiring a wedding photographer. However, it seems that sometimes even that isn’t enough. A UK couple reportedly hired a photographer based on her portfolio only to discover that she had used stock photos in it. Their wedding photos apparently turned out so awful, that they had to restage the wedding for another shoot.

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The Canadian Internet Registration Authority has a free stock photo library, and it’s hilarious

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Even though it’s not their primary purpose, stock photography websites can be a source of hilarious images. But the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) made a stock photo gallery with the sole purpose of being funny. The gallery is filled with photos that poke fun at most common stereotypes about Canada, and it’s absolutely hilarious.

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Photographer faces legal action after using a photo he downloaded from Unsplash

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Many photographers argue that Unsplash is a disaster for the industry. But it seems that it can also be harmful to those who download and use photos from the website. Photographer, cameraman, and presenter Simon Palmer recently got into legal trouble after using a photo from Unsplash on his blog. Although the photo was from the “source of freely usable images,” Palmer got a copyright infringement notice from Copytrack requesting him to pay a license fee.

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Thieves may be selling your photos on Shutterstock

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While looking at my own images on Shutterstock, I noticed the Shutterstock algorithm was suggesting my photos as “similar” images. I thought it was a bug on the Shutterstock website until I noticed that others had downloaded my photos from other sites then uploaded them to Shutterstock. Shutterstock’s similar photos algorithm then noticed this and suggested the stolen photos along with my photos.

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China’s largest stock photo website under fire for trying to sell the world’s first black hole image

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On 10 April 2019, the world has seen the first-ever image of a supermassive black hole. Some people were staring in awe, some were complaining that the image took over their news feeds, and yet the others started making memes out of it. But Visual China Group (VCG) tried selling it on its website. Since the photo is under the Creative Commons license, this move caused a massive public outcry.

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After three years in stock photography: is it really worth it?

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Are you thinking about starting shooting stock photography? There are different opinions whether it’s a good move or not, and the experiences of photographers differ. If you’re still trying to make up your mind, I believe this video from Rachel Lerch will help you. After three years of shooting and selling stock photos, it’s time for a recap: is it really worth it? Listen to Rachel’s experiences and thoughts about both good and bad sides of stock photography.

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This photographer uploaded a photo to a royalty-free stock site only to find it on over 500,000 Walmart products

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Canadian photographer and filmmaker Michael Stemm recently sold an image through Shutterstock, earning $1.88. Little did he know that it would end up on Walmart products: 500,000 of them! A friend let him know when she noticed his image at Walmart, and the photographer believes that the company is taking advantage of him.

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Starting today, 500px no longer have a Creative Commons license option

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Remember that a month ago image sharing platform 500px announced that they will shut their marketplace down? A closer look at the announcement by Redditor Ricky_Lee_Hasselhoff reveals that 500px are also killing their Creative Commons licensing option.

If you are unfamiliar with Creative Commons, you can read about it here, but in a nutshell, it’s a licensing scheme that allows others to use your photos without monetary compensation. Here is the nice thing about creative commons: it allows putting restrictions on usage. Things like an obligation to credit the artist or restricting from commercial use. Basically Creative Commons is a licensing platform that encourages sharing.

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The girl from the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme is always totally shocked

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There’s hardly anyone who hasn’t seen the “Distracted Boyfriend” meme in some of its variants. Photographer Antonio Guillem captured the same model many times, and Ernie Smith has recently started a Twitter thread showing that she is always wearing the same facial expression. The fact that the girl is “easily shocked when looking at screens” has become the topic of the thread, and it has quickly gone viral.

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