A photo pulled from a Google search, an image copied from a competitor’s website, or a screenshot grabbed from a social media post: none of these belong on your business website without permission. Copyright protects a photo automatically the moment it’s taken, whether or not a watermark or copyright notice is visible. Using someone else’s photo anyway carries real risk, from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars depending on who owns the image and how aggressively they enforce it. The only safe options are your own photos, properly licensed stock images, or free-database photos with a license that actually covers your use.
Why copyright applies automatically, no notice required
US copyright law protects a photograph the instant it’s created, without any requirement to register it or mark it with a copyright symbol. That surprises a lot of business owners who assume an image is fair game unless it’s explicitly labeled. Registration with the US Copyright Office matters for a different reason: it determines what a photographer can actually collect if they sue. A photo registered before the infringement started, or shortly after first publication, opens the door to statutory damages of 750 to 30,000 dollars per work, and up to 150,000 dollars if the use is found willful. Without timely registration, the photographer is generally limited to actual damages, usually a reasonable license fee plus any provable lost business, and can’t recover attorney’s fees.
Either way, the starting point is the same: a photo you didn’t take and don’t have a license for is presumptively someone else’s property, no matter how it looks or where you found it.
Fair use almost never covers a commercial website photo
Fair use gets brought up often and applies rarely. Courts weigh four factors: the purpose of the use, the nature of the original work, how much of it was used, and the effect on the market for the original. A business using a full, unmodified photo to promote its own products or services checks nearly every box against fair use: the use is commercial, the whole image gets used, and it directly substitutes for a license the photographer would otherwise have sold. Fair use protects things like commentary, criticism, and news reporting, not a contractor swapping in a stock-looking photo on a services page instead of paying for one.
What a demand letter actually costs
Firms that specialize in tracking down unlicensed images, most visibly Higbee & Associates and PicRights, scan the web and send demand letters when they find a match. Public reporting on these cases shows opening demands commonly in the range of 1,500 to 20,000 dollars per photo, sometimes higher, often citing the federal statutory maximum to justify the number. In practice, many small-business matters settle for a fraction of the initial demand, closer to a multiple of what a normal license would have cost, especially once it’s clear the business removed the image and didn’t know its origin.
The math changes if the case actually goes to federal court and the photo was registered in time: a judge can award anywhere from 750 to 30,000 dollars per work in the standard range, or up to 150,000 for willful infringement. Most disputes never get that far, but the number in a demand letter is often built around that ceiling, not around what a business realistically owes.
Free stock sites: what’s actually covered
| Image source | Commercial use allowed | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Your own photos (phone or photographer) | Yes, without restriction | Get written consent from employees or customers who appear in the shot |
| Unsplash, Pexels, Pixabay | Yes, usually without attribution | No reselling the photo as a standalone product, be careful with recognizable people or third-party logos in the frame |
| Purchased stock (e.g. Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Getty) | Yes, within the license terms | Standard versus extended license covers different uses, keep proof of purchase and license terms |
| An image pulled from a Google search with no check | No | Almost always protected, the source and license need to be confirmed individually |
| An image copied from a competitor’s website | No | Still protected, a missing copyright notice changes nothing |
Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay generally allow commercial use of their photos without requiring attribution. That covers the copyright itself, meaning whether you’re allowed to use the photo at all. Two limits still apply across all three: reselling a photo as a standalone product on another stock platform isn’t permitted, and none of the platforms guarantee that a person clearly visible in a photo has actually signed a release. That’s a separate legal question from copyright, tied to the person in the photo rather than whoever took it.
The safest option: your own photos
The most reliable way to sidestep this entire risk is photographing your own business. It also solves a second problem a lot of home services businesses underestimate: stock photos read as generic to visitors and don’t signal real, first-hand experience the way an actual jobsite photo does. Photos for Your Business Website covers how to put together a complete photo set with just a smartphone in a single morning. Any photo showing employees or customers should come with a quick written consent, regardless of who took it.
A checklist before adding any new photo
- Confirm where the photo came from and whether there’s a documented license source
- For stock photos, check the exact license type, especially the scope of allowed use and how long it’s valid
- On free databases, avoid photos with clearly recognizable people or third-party logos in the frame
- For your own photos featuring people, collect written consent from any employee or customer shown
- Save a screenshot or PDF of the license terms at the time of download, since terms can change later
- When in doubt, skip the photo or replace it with one you took yourself
What to actually do if a demand letter arrives
A demand letter is unpleasant but not an emergency that calls for an immediate check. Removing the flagged photo from the site right away limits any ongoing exposure, though it doesn’t erase a claim for past use. Never sign and return a settlement agreement without reading it carefully, some include broader releases or admissions than the situation calls for. The response window is often short, which makes a quick review by an attorney the first move, not an afterthought.
Photo rights are one of the details that get missed easily when building a website, mostly because a photo feels like it takes two seconds to find. Keeping every image on the site properly licensed is part of what’s included in our managed service plan, which now covers several hundred business websites.