In a situation where you need to use an image which is copyrighted, you may need to request for express permission from the original owner of the image.
If you are granted the permission to use the image, you will still need to credit the author and if possible attach the evidence of the permission given to you.
This will help you defend yourself anywhere.
Reverse searching
This is a technique you can use to also find out if an image is free from copywrite.
There are some sites that offer this service. All you need do is to to upload the image on the site and various attribute about the image will be displayed.
Example of these sites are TinEye, Prepostseo, smallseotools and many more. They offer you the chance of finding out if the image is free for use.
Plagiarism on words
When writing articles, do not copy word for word. Read the article and explain in your own word what you understand.
Copying someone else's work verbatim is plagiarism and will not tolerated in readcash as there are already set-up police of the community.
I call them the police of the community because they are there to ensure that sanctity is maintained on the platform.
Plagiarism will only end up causing you to loose substantial votes and friends.
You can also be blacklisted by some communities that don't joke or take plagiarism likely.
When you need to copy a particular sentence in an article verbatim, you are expected to put it in a quotation or use the markdown for quotation to highlight it and then possibly put the link from where you got the sentence.
This saves you a lot of headache.
Most communities frown at plagiarism. So try and be original.
Put effort in your work and always remember, nothing good comes easy. You just just have to work it out.
Lets briefly talk about licenses...
👉CC BY-NC: Non commercial meaning that you are free to edit and use the original work but you must not use the image for commercial purposes.
👉CC BY-ND: Here you are free to redistribute the work for either commercial or non commercial purposes but the emphasis here is that the work must not be changed or altered for any reason,hence the name non derivative.
The whole credit must also be given to the original author.
👉Public domain: When a work is found under public domain it means that it has no copyright and nobody really has the right to lay claim as to the ownership of the image.
Though not all images are really free to use under public domain because the law varies from country to country. It is advisable to stick to the CC0 if you are not sure.
For more details about licenses kindly go through the reference section of this article. Let's now talk about how to find these images that are free from copyright claims.
Website for free images
Most times you might be in dare need of a picture to actually portray or depict what you are writing, visiting Google will obviously give you want you want but are the pictures free of copyright claims?
Writing scientific articles requires a lot from you as the author.
The list below are sure website you can visit to get images that free from copyright claims
Wikimedia and pixabayare the two most widely used sites where you can get free images. Other sites are listed below.
stocksnappexelsunsplashepicantusskitterphotopicographyburstreshotfoodiesfeedgratisographyfree stocks.orgMIT stcokpic jumbokaboompicslife of pixlittle visualsdeath to stock photonew old stockJay mantrishotstash and lastlystyled stock
The above are sites that will help you get those unique images you wish to use to write your articles irrespective of the type of article.
I also need to bring to your attention that some governmental and non-profit organization's sites images are usually free to use and when referencing , all that is expected of you to do is to reference the site or the name of the organization as a whole when the author of the image is not stated.
In a situation where the the name of the author is stated, you will need to mention the name of the author and the organization.
Example of organization like this are MIT, CDC, WHO etc. If you are not sure, always ensure to go through their terms of use and privacy policy.
Flickr is another site where you can get free images for use but it cannot be strictly categorised as a site for free images because not all images on Flickr are free for use.
Before using images on Flickr, ensure to check below the images, it is usually stated whether it is free for use or not.
Remember that beautiful images make a post fascinating to read. Always reference your work properly.
We will continue next time....
If there are other things you feel I missed out in this article or corrections necessary to be made, feel free to leave it as a comment. It will be updated as soon as possible.
Your friendly friend @cyprianj, see ya
the best license of course is CC0, but if you're a creator, it depends on what type of CC-license you would want to use yourself 😅.
also plagiarism is frowned upon so, it's best to use plagiarism checker tools found on the internet.