Have Your Say: Blogging, Image Use, and Giving Credit Where Credit is Due (Part 2)

Image used and adapted upon under Creative Commons license. Original photo belongs to user Davide Restivo on Flickr.

Hey guys! First of all, as you can see, there's a new Have Your Say graphic, which, let's face it, is not at all gorgeous or shiny, since I spent a grand total of about five minutes editing it. But hey. I'm a fan of pictures, and I figured a crappily edited picture was better than no picture! And furthermore, a crappily edited picture used with permission and citation is better than a beautiful one that is used improperly, which segues nicely into the topic of today's post.

Anyways, for those of you who were around at the end of May, you probably remember my last Have Your Say post, entitled "Blogging, Image Use, and Giving Credit Where Credit is Due." If you didn't get the chance to read it, you can do so by clicking HERE, or you can stay tuned for the little summary I'm about to give. Basically, that post addressed the issue of using images without proper permission and citations in the blogosphere. There were a lot of great comments, and I was very grateful for everyone's feedback! As part of the discussion, I also posted an optional, anonymous survey that asked bloggers whether or not they had personally used images improperly. I also promised to give you guys the results in the future, so here they are! 

As you can see if you do the math, 42 bloggers took the survey. While this is, in reality, a VERY small percentage of the bloggers who are actually out there in the blogosphere, it gives us an idea of how widespread the problem is. From the comments everyone made on my first post on this topic, I was expecting to see a high percentage of "yes" responses, but still...it's even more startling when you can visually see the results. 

The good thing is that, after reading that last post, quite a few bloggers (book bloggers, in particular) said that they were planning on more carefully watching their image use in the future. And that, honestly, was the entire purpose of me writing the post in the first place: to bring about awareness of the issue. 

Also, I had a few bloggers ask me about places where they can find images to use for their blog posts. Here's a few that I know of (and that other bloggers have told me about), but if you see one that isn't mentioned on this list, please say so in the comments so I can add it! Also, I'm not personally familiar with every single one of these sites, as some were given to me by other bloggers, so make sure to read the license restrictions or site rules before you start!

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Flickr. Make sure the photo is listed in the Creative Commons! If you're planning on adding text or otherwise adapting the photo, make sure to check if the copyright details allow for this. If you use the Advanced search option, you can search only for images that will allow you to do this! 

Stock.xchng. (Thanks to Kayla + Cyna for the tip!)

iStockphoto. (Thanks, Felicia!)

Shutterstock. (Thanks, Karen!)

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Thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion last time! Personally, I know that I learned a lot, and I hope you guys did too!