This article provides some insight into copyright infringement and/or copyright claims, as it relates to the use of images on websites, while also offering ways to avoid copyright claims. This includes providing proactive actions and links to resources for free royalty-free stock images and paid royalty-free stock images.

If you own a website, or are a web designer who has used images without securing licensing then you probably know this can be a real costly endeavor. Copyright infringement is a real and occurs more often than you think.  This occurs both on purpose, and inadvertently.  In any case, the attorneys who will be contacting you do not care if it was a mistake or not. This is why it is important to use images from a trusted source (not Google Image Search), and/or license your images from a trusted stock image resource.

Before we get into providing solutions to avoiding copyright claims, let us first understand the nuts and bolts of the issue which can be realized by reviewing some frequently asked questions and answers relative to copyright infringement as it relates to "image usage on the internet".

In October of 2018 Google announced they would be "Protecting your data, improving our third-party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+".  Later in December another update would come as Google announced "Expediting changes to Google+". Most recently in December of 2018, deletion dates were provided when Google emphasized that it will shut down Google+, "due to low usage and challenges involved in maintaining a successful product that meets consumers’ expectations." as provided in Google's official statement.

While the number of mobile device users is growing, the number of social media networks is also constantly growing. However, with the recent news of Google sunsetting Google+, the "social media battle field" just got thinner. 

In 2015 Google notified all website owners of issues on their site relative to mobility issues. If your website was deficient and/or you have received an email that provided a warning stating that “Google systems has tested your site finding a percentage of your website’s pages to have critical mobile usability errors", then this is something you really should resolve.

Is it a valid concern if a website is not optimized for mobile devices? That question depends on the answer to another question. How many mobile device users are their versus desktop users. In May 2015, in the “Google Inside Adwords Blog”, within the article titled "Building for the next moment", Google stated that “Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan”. Furthermore,  www.statista.com authored an article titled "Statistics and Facts on Mobile Internet Usage" which reports that "mobile phone internet user penetration was 52.7 percent in 2015" and suggests the figure will climb to 63.4 percent by 2017.

If you don’t know who Matt Cutts is, then you probably have not been paying much attention to the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). If you own or manage a website and have an interest in growing your web presence, then its time you learn more about Matt Cutts.

When viewing Google’s Management Team Page, provided on their company website. You will not see a photo or even a description of Matt Cutts. I find this funny considering, that when Matt Cutts speaks, his words have a more significant impact on the world of SEO than any other Google staff member.

Perhaps you are more familiar with the "stay thirsty" ad campaign put on by Dos Equis Beer. Whereas their spokesman is a older distinguished gentlemen who is lauded as "the most interesting man in the world". I could not help but to rewrite many of the popular sayings so that they are relevant to the world of SEO and Matt Cutts.

"Search engines base their results upon his guidelines"

"His words are considered golden"

"He is fluent in all search engine algorithms, even those that have not been developed yet"