It’s never been easier to download images, movies and music from the Internet. Which means you can literally pull images, videos and music off all kinds of sites - from royalty-free sites to torrent sites – and use them in your marketing.

Except that… you may be breaking the law.

Just because you can readily download and repurpose content doesn’t mean you have the legal right to do so. That may seem obvious when it comes to downloading images off just any site or movies off torrent sites… but even where it appears possible to, for example, buy royalty-free content, there are typically terms and conditions that apply.

For example, when you purchase content from a royalty-free site you are really purchasing a ‘license’ to use that content. That license is typically limited, the limits of which are described in the license terms – you know, all that stuff you ‘click’ your agreement to when you buy the content.

As an example, many standard royalty-free licenses enable you to use the given content for promotional purposes, but do not allow you to resell the content in question. There are often other restrictions on how you use that content too.

So… read the terms and conditions before you make assumptions about what you can do with the content!

Now, let’s not all panic. There are sometimes implied licenses to use certain content. For example, on sites such as YouTube, video contributors must specify if they don’t wish to allow others to embed their videos. If they don’t disable the embedding feature they are taken to have agreed to letting others embed their movies. But again, read the YouTube terms before assuming anything!

1. In fact, if I could offer three final thoughts, they would be these:
2. Always read terms and conditions;
3. Assume nothing; and

Ignorance of the law is no defense!