This guest post written by Lake Travis waterfront homes specialist, Sam Chapman.

Need Photos?

Many real estate agents building web pages or writing blog posts use photos.  Some “borrow” photos from other websites either not understanding copyright laws or just completely blowing off intellectual property rights.  This is not only wrong, it is theft.  So where does a real estate agent go for photos if they don’t have any of their own that will work for a web page or blog post?

One excellent resource is Wikimedia Commons .  Wikimedia Commons is a site that applies Creative Commons rules that allow people to use various media files in legal ways.  Creative Commons defines various licensing options ranging from full copyright to public domain.  The creator of a file, whether it is an graphic image, photo, video, or a sound clip, can post the file at Wikimedia Commons and tell potential users how the file can legally be used.

Many images are from various sources like some government agencies that may not be subject to copyright laws and that may place the images in the public domain.  A photographer can release all claim to a photo by declaring that it in the public domain.  Aside from public domain, there are various levels of licensing and each image or file at Wikimedia Commons will have a description telling people how a file may be used.

So if you need a photo and want to make sure you are using it legally, go to Wikimedia Commons and enter a term in the search box.  Click on a photo that is returned that you like and read the conditions under which it may be used.  You will find a database of almost 7 million files there.