Categories: About LiteracyBase

Are We Free to Use Photos from the LB Media Library?

Photo above shows my personal photo of a yellow gumamela flower

I thought of posting this blog upon reading a comment of @cely at the Literacybase Thinkers Group where she lamented that a member here used her personal photos for his/her blog post.

I felt the same way yesterday when I saw my personal photo and he/she used several of it in his/her blogs with the same titles. I was so annoyed, why he used it even it did not match his/her “blogs.” I opened one of that “controversial” blogs and found the content so spammy, it looks like it was copy/pasted from the net. It occupied almost all the front wall of Literacybase for blog titles. It was a photo of a beautiful beach here in the Philippines which I took with my cellphone camera about two years ago.

This is the reason why I was adamant in using photos from the Literacybase.com media library. It could be a member’s personal photo and he might not feel so good about it.When you have personal photos, you own it, and it is not good if someone will just use it, like it was being stolen from you.

In fairness, there is no markings on photos here at the Literacybase media library, so how can a member put some image credit for that photo he lifted from it?

This is the reason why I always use my “signature photo,” of a yellow gumamela, or Hibiscus flower which I also used for my avatar in other writing sites, though it is red in color. Then I saw a member who also used it. I thought it was alright because the writer posted a good blog, compared to that “spammer” who used my photo of a beach several times, posted at the same time!

Related Post

So to avoid using other people’s photos, I turned to free photos at Pixabay.com. It is for public use, and it stated there that anyone can use it even without attribution. But for me, I always wanted to thank the photographer, and though it is free to use, I put image credit to Pixabay.com for that free photo.

I noticed some people here using photos with “shutterstock” watermark. And I read from one of the blogs in another site that there is a “shutterstock” watermark because it is not free to be used; they will charge the one who used their photo. So be careful in using photos with the “shutterstock” marking. I just do not know if they also have free photos.

I wish I could know how to put watermark on my photos, so other people can not just use it. I am still studying how to put it in my files for blogs.

Do you know how to put watermarks on photos?




  • acelawrites

    View Comments

    • thanks for sharing this, I never knew the photos in the media library were provided by literacy base, now I understand that those were saved from photos uploaded by writers..

      • Yes, they are uploaded by writers. Sometimes it is alright to use them if they match your blog, or so-called generic photo. You can use free photos from Pixabay, pinterest, etc.

    • @ acela

      Like what you mentioned, we should watermarked before uploading our personal photos, so that if ever they use it, it's there in the photo already and they cannot deny anymore that it's yours.

      • Thanks Ruby. Yes, our photos should have a mark so other people will know they could not use it, or if ever they use it they should mention that the photo is yours.

    • I never knew also about this phone media, and all that, nice posts thanks and i like it but the thing is that using some words that are technical which make no clue to some

      • Just to be safe, it is better to upload own photos, or if you don't have available photos, get it from free sites like Pixabay free images; Pinterest, etc. Just put some attribution when you use them. Thanks for your reply.

    • I thought they were free to use.... I usually look for the pinterest type or the kind with the little attribution... like if you use getty

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