eCommerce: photos in the e-shop and copyright

Without good photos, an online store has no chance of existence. Customers buy with their eyes, so choosing the right photos can be the “make or break” of a given online store. So what are the legal sources from which you can obtain photos without breaking the law?

Implementing sales platforms involves knowledge of legal regulations.

In addition to placing unique product descriptions, each online store also includes photos of the products, which can influence customers’ purchasing decisions. However, not all of them can be used.

As owners of an online store, we can (if we have the right skills and equipment) take photos of the assortment ourselves. However, the problem begins when the product range is extremely wide and trying to take a few thousand photos, due to the large amount of time, is simply not profitable.

Photos, like musical pieces, are protected by the provisions of the Act of 4 February 1994 on copyright and related rights. Product photos must have a unique and individual character and must be the result of their author’s thought processes. The presentation of a given product, as well as the entire composition in the photo, are elements that prove its uniqueness. These are actually the only requirements that a product photo must meet so that its author can have full copyright. In addition, it does not have to emphasize anywhere that it prohibits the use of the work by third parties or its copying, because refraining from practicing such activities is a legal obligation for each person visiting the website.

A person whose copyright to a photograph has been violated may seek compensation in court, invoking Article 415 of the Civil Code, which states that any person who has caused damage to another person is obliged to repair it. The above formulation is very general, which gives the injured person a lot of freedom in determining the amount of compensation.

The effects of copyright infringement are unpleasant even if the financial penalty is not severe for the entrepreneur in question. Because in addition to paying a fine, in this situation the image of the e-shop also suffers. Public information that its owner has been convicted by the court is unlikely to increase the number of customers.

So where to get photos?

The easiest way to legally obtain product photos is… to ask their creator for permission. Promotion on the Internet is something that everyone wants to strive for, which is why photographers are happy to agree to such requests, seeing it as an opportunity for self-promotion. Sometimes it also happens that the website contains permission to download certain graphics for commercial purposes (free of charge or for a fee).

Additionally, there are also many so-called photo banks, but in this case it is useful to read the regulations carefully, because not all creators of photographs transfer copyright to the person downloading. Sometimes it happens that it is necessary to indicate its author under the photo. In this case, you should pay attention to the designation of the downloaded files. Those with the CC BY symbol mean that information about its creator should be placed under the photo, while the CC0 symbol does not require the author to be indicated.