Welcome to the Western Center For Journalism’s blog on blogging. Confusing? This is a place to learn how to blog like a pro, to get your message out to as many people as possible, and to even make some money doing it. Our mission at the Western Center for Journalism is to Inform and Equip American Who Love Freedom. This blog is to help equip those Americans to spread conservative ideas the best they can.
Conservative Blogging Tips
How To Stay Legal Posting Pictures While Blogging
March 14, 2012 by 2 Comments
While some people may not think so (or at least act like it), copyright laws still apply when writing or posting on the web. One of the biggest ways that copyright laws are often ignored is in the use of pictures on blogs. It’s so easy to download images and upload them again that copyright laws sometimes go right out the window. If you have this attitution, however, you can run into some big trouble. This post will hopefully clear up (1) Why bloggers should stay legal with picture use and (2) How to stay legal without having to hire a full time photographer. First, the reasons why you should respect copyright of photos.
Why Bloggers Should Respect Copyright On Pictures
First of all, its the right thing to do! In this day and age, the ability to do something translates for many people into “I will do it.” Stealing a photo is still stealing. Yes its easy. Yes you can get away with it. Most of the time. That leads me to my second reason…
You can get caught! And sued! Big time! This is especially true if you start using photos from the big photo and newswire agencies such as AP, Reuters, or Getty Images. They have lots of money and they make lots of money syndicating out their content and images to websites and news organizations. The photos they sell can be expensive. If they catch a small blogger using them, what chance do you think you will stand against a team of lawyers? If you have used many different pictures from these services, you can get in major trouble.
Basically, to stay safe and stay ethical, you should refrain from indiscriminate “use” of other’s copyrighted images. To find out more about copyright online go here: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2007/07/07/copyright-explained-i-may-copy-it-right/
The rest of this article will explain ways you can use photos from throughout the web on your blog posts, without spending lots of money or hiring a photographer.
How To Find Images You Can Use On The Web
Note: Copyright law can be confusing. Before you use any of these tips, know that I am not a lawyer and am not offering legal advice. Anything you do is your own responsibility. OK, disclaimer over.
Here are some of the best sources for images that can be used. Some of these images require attribution to the author for use. Some can be freely used as they are in the Public Domain. I recommend reading up at each source what their licensing agreement is.
Government
Photo Of Uncle Sam Courtesy Of Uncle Sam
For bloggers who are writing on politics, one of the best sources of public domain photographs is the good old U.S. Government. The images that the U.S Government produces are automatically in the public domain and free of copyright. There are two ways to get these photos.
First, go to Google Images. Type in “site.gov” (without parentheses) and then the term that you want to search. For example, if you are looking for pictures of Obama that can be used without any copyright restrictions, type in “site.gov Obama” into the search bar. Click on the link to see this search in action. Typing in site:.gov before the term is a search operator that only gives results for sites with a “.gov” domain. This is a great way to find political photos.
Alternatively, you can also go to media collections of the various agencies. Here are few that have good photo collections.
You can find an entire list of government photo collections at USA.gov
Creative Commons and “Copyright Friendly” Images
Many photos are now under the Creative Commons license. Generally, photos under a Creative Commons license can be used under certain restrictions. Some request that the use is non-commercial. Most request that attribution is made to the original author.
Along with photos in the Creative Commons, many photos are licensed to various websites which collect and distribute free stock photos. Some restrictions apply, which means you’ll have to read up on each site how they handle attribution, use, etc.
Here is a list of websites that will help you find usable photos. While you won’t find as many political photos as you will at government websites, you can find many stock photos for use in blogging.
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
http://www.everystockphoto.com/ Search Engine to find creative commons photos.
http://www.morguefile.com/ Reusable photos without attribution. You can even use photos commercially.
http://www.imageafter.com/ Similar to MorgeFile. Images can be used without attribution.
http://publicdomainpictures.net/
http://freerangestock.com/ Requires membership
http://4freephotos.com/ Can be used without attribution unless used on an object (Coffee Mug, T-Shirt, etc. Bloggers will be ok.)
http://www.openimagebank.com/en/index.php
http://www.public-domain-image.com/
For more complete lists of stock image websites go to Wikipedia and this Knol.
Fair Use
“Fair Use” is where things get really tricky. A good definition of fair use comes from Wikipedia:
Fair use is a limitation and exception to the exclusive right granted by copyright law to the author of a creative work. In United States copyright law, fair use is a doctrine that permits limited use of copyrighted material without acquiring permission from the rights holders. Examples of fair use include commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching, library archiving and scholarship. It provides for the legal, unlicensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test.
Basically, what this means is that you can, in some certain circumstances, use a photo that is under copyright without infringment. The “certain circumstances” part of that statement is what gets many bloggers in trouble, as “Fair Use” is often abused.
Fair Use is designed to balance the public interest with the rights of copyright holders. It is most often used in blogging to either comment on books or news articles by including short quotes and commenting on it. In the case of photos, if the photo in question is completely integral to your commentary, criticism, news reporting (i.e. it is the focus of your article) then you might be able to claim Fair Use.
Fair Use, however, is a very subjective part of copyright law and I recommend you try to stay away from using any photos that are under copyright. The best thing to do is to first ask the photographer if you can have permission to feature his image. Here is a great article discussing Fair Use as it pertains to images online.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this post has helped you find good pictures you can use without getting thrown in jail. (Ok, if not jail, at least fined.) At the least, I hope it has opened your eyes to some of the legal problems that bloggers have to confront. To read more about copyright, creative commons licenses, fair use, and other blogging legal issues, use these great resources below. Please comment below with your thoughts and please ask any questions.
https://www.eff.org/issues/bloggers/legal
http://www.avivadirectory.com/blogger-law/
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-b.html
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/09/10/fair-use-of-photography-on-a-blog/
http://socialfresh.com/how-to-use-content-from-other-blogs-without-infringing-on-their-copyright/
The Importance Of Linking To Other Websites
February 17, 2012 by 1 Comment
Links are what make up the World Wide Web
Welcome to many of you who signed up for Conservative Blogging Tips at CPAC 2012. We at Western Center for Journalism are starting this blog to be a resource for conservative bloggers on our site as well as throughout the web. Our mission at The Western Center for Journalism is to Inform and Equip Americans That Love Freedom. Our main news and commentary section (composed of bloggers like you) is the “Informing” part of our mission. This blog will focus on “Equipping.” My name is Patrick Brown, and I’m the Director of Operations here at WesternJournalism.com. Everything I’ve learned here building up our own site, I’m happy to share with you.
Our first topic will be “The Importance of Linking.” Basic, yes I know, but what better place to start at?
Links are truly the foundation of the World Wide Web. The original term, “hyperlink” was coined in 1965 by researcher named Ted Nelson. He was working on a project called Xanadu, that sought to create a network of computers that were connected through a web of connecting links. Sound familiar?
Anyway, in the late 80s a man by the name of Tim Berners-Lee really connected the dots and created the protocols that eventually became what we now call the World Wide Web. Links are the connection between individual website pages. It is these millions upon millions of links which make up the web and connect human knowledge together. At first, people discovered new web pages only through links.
Then in the late 90s, a couple of Stanford grad students decided to upgrade basic search programs for use on the internet. Other search engines had been created before that searched web pages for keywords, but these guys had the innovative idea of using links as a measure of importance (The more links a page had to it, the more likely it was authoritative on its contextual subject.) These two grad students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, went on to found (you guessed it) Google, and changed the internet forever.
Based on this short history, you can start to see why linking is important. Here’s why it’s important for you, the blogger, specifically.
1. It gives the reader context and increases their trust in your work.
When journalists wrote in print, they used to have to have to write short introductions to news stories so that readers would know some of the back story. Now, bloggers can simply link to an older post that they or someone else wrote and, if a reader wants to get updated, all they have to do is click a link. Readers who already know what is going on simply can keep reading.
Similarly, just as you put footnotes in research papers, you can simply link to other webpages to back up what you are writing. If you make a controversial claim, or reference a study or news story, you can (and should) link to the older post. This gives readers the ability to check your sources, and in the end, increases their trust in your work. For example, I say that Eric Holder lied about Fast and Furious, I would say, Eric Holder lied about Fast and Furious.
2. It serves as a way to communicate with other bloggers.
Linking is a form of communication. When you link to another blogger, oftentimes they see the link and link back to you in response to your post. Linking can open up a whole new world of information, as other bloggers begin to cite your work and contact you to learn more. This leads to the next reason a blogger should post:
3. It builds your readership.
As soon as you enter this new world of linking and communication, you become part of a larger conversation. This means that bloggers will link to you as you produce quality content, and consequently more people will become aware of your work. Additionally, the more links you bring back to your content, the more likely Google will list your post as higher on search engine results pages. We will go more in depth about this subject, called Search Engine Optimization, as time goes on, but for now, just know that the more quality links you receive to your content, the better.
Hopefully, this post has given you something to think about. I encourage each of you to experiment with linking to others and see what sort of result you get. And, before you go, comment below and tell us what you think about linking and why it is important. I’ve only included three reasons, but the reasons are truly countless. For my next post, I’ll describe exactly how to link to another website. (And I’ll update this page to link to that new post 
)
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