© Unsplash
Maybe your business has experienced this, or maybe you know someone’s who has.
It starts with an email. Not the kind announcing a new enquiry or celebrating a successful campaign. Instead, it’s a notice from a company representing an image library, claiming that an image has been used on your website without the correct license. It’s the sort of email many businesses assume they’ll never receive, yet it happens more often than you might think.
That’s why understanding image licensing and having a clear process for sourcing visual assets can help protect your business from unnecessary costs and reputational risk. After all, your brand isn’t just your logo, colours and messaging. It’s also every image, graphic and asset you publish – as we mentioned on our recent blog on authentic brand photography.
What is image copyright and what is image licensing?
First things first, it’s important to distinguish between image copyright and image licensing.
Image copyright refers to the legal protection given to original images, such as photographs, illustrations and graphics, that provide the copyright owner control over how and where their work can be used, copied or shared. In most cases, in order to use a copyrighted image, you need the owner’s permission first.
Then you have image licensing – the permission granted by a copyright holder that sets out how, where and for how long an image can be used. Different licences may cover commercial use, online publishing, editing or particular territories, so as a business, you should always be asking yourself ‘Do I actually have permission to use this image in the way I want to use it?’, and then check the specific terms before publishing.
Why checking image copyright matters
The reality is that copyright law protects photographs automatically from the moment they’re created. Just because an image appears in a search engine doesn’t mean it’s free to use. The same applies to free and paid image libraries. While using a reputable stock image platform can make sourcing imagery easier, you still need to be mindful of the individual licences attached to individual images.
In fact, according to the UK Intellectual Property Office, copyright exists automatically, meaning creators don’t need to register their work for it to be protected. Businesses can therefore run into legal issues and face claims even if copyright notices weren’t immediately visible when the image was downloaded.
© Unsplash
When image licensing gets complicated
The challenge is that image licensing issues rarely start with someone deliberately ignoring copyright. In fact, more often than not, they come from perfectly ordinary situations.
Someone might find an image through Google and assume it’s available to use, or perhaps a colleague might download an image from a free image library without keeping a record of the licence. Or it could be that an older website contains hundreds of images with no clear record of where they came from. Then you’ve got to consider that some images may be available on more than one image library, making it even more important to note where you sourced it.
We’ve seen first-hand how difficult this can become when businesses inherit websites or marketing libraries built up over many years. An image may have been legitimately licensed originally, but if nobody can find the licence, identify where it came from or establish what usage was permitted, proving that years later can become unnecessarily difficult.
Even using a reputable image library doesn’t necessarily remove the need to check. Licence terms can differ depending on the provider and image, with conditions around things like commercial or editorial use, attribution, modifications and who within an organisation is permitted to use the asset.
None of these scenarios are particularly unusual. But they demonstrate why simply knowing where an image was downloaded from isn’t always enough – you also need to know what permission you have to use it.
Why this is really about brand governance
Image licensing is obviously a legal issue, but for marketing teams, it’s also a brand-governance issue.
Strong brands are built on consistency, trust and professionalism. That doesn’t stop with visual identity guidelines, it extends to the processes behind every piece of content your business publishes.
Without clear procedures, different departments may:
- Download images from unknown sources.
- Reuse old assets without checking licenses.
- Store files without recording where they came from.
- Publish content without any approval process.
Over time, these small shortcuts create significant risk. This isn’t just about avoiding a claim; it’s about knowing where your brand assets come from and having confidence that everything your organisation publishes has been properly sourced and approved. After all, any decent marketing team shouldn’t have to investigate the history of every image from scratch every time someone wants to use it.
Checking image copyright should therefore be a standard part of your publishing process, helping to remove that uncertainty.
Why image and brand asset processes help protect your brand
The most successful brands don’t rely on luck, they rely on systems and organisational processes. Good brand management should include clear processes for sourcing imagery, recording the rights, storing the assets properly and making approved content easy to find and use for the whole team.
A few simple habits can make a huge difference:
- Only use images from trusted, licensed sources.
- Keep a record of every image license, where it was obtained, and the licence or permission that applied.
- Create a central image library for your team.
- Make checking image copyright and licensing part of your content approval process.
- Review older website content periodically to check that you still have a record of the appropriate licence or permission for each image.
These steps don’t just reduce legal risk, they make your marketing more organised, efficient and professional.
How to see if an image is copyrighted – and whether you can use it
In practice, rather than simply asking whether an image is copyrighted, the more important question is whether you have the appropriate permission or licence to use it in the way you intend. Image licensing is there to determine how an image can legally be used, shared or adapted, and you shouldn’t assume that an image is free to use simply because it appears online or in a Google Images search.
To check whether you can use an image:
- Find the image’s original source.
- Identify the creator or copyright holder.
- Look for the image licensing terms.
- Check that the licence covers your intended use, including commercial use where relevant.
- Keep a record of the licence or permission.
- If the rights aren’t clear, don’t use it.*
It’s worth noting that at the time of writing, AI imagery isn’t copyrighted, however, if using one, you’ll need to note that an image is AI-generated to maintain transparency and avoid problems down the line.
© Unsplash
The bigger picture
Marketing teams spend countless hours protecting brand reputation through messaging, design and customer experience. It would be a shame for that reputation to be damaged by something as preventable as an unlicensed photograph.
The lesson isn’t simply “don’t use copyrighted images.” It’s that every strong brand is supported by strong internal processes, and that includes checking image copyright.
The businesses that consistently produce great marketing aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets, they’re the ones with the best systems.
After all, when everyone knows where assets come from, who approved them and how they’re being used, creativity can flourish without unnecessary risk.
Our biggest tip? Taking the time to build clear branding and content processes today could save your business significant time, money and stress tomorrow, and that’s an investment every brand can benefit from.
Need help putting clear brand and content processes in place, from image sourcing and approvals to managing your brand assets? Get in touch. We’d be happy to help.
*This article provides general guidance on image licensing and brand asset management rather than legal advice. If you’re dealing with a specific copyright claim or dispute, we’d recommend seeking appropriate legal advice.
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