Red alert! 3 billion images are shared online every day, 85% are either stolen or without the proper copyright clearance

01 July 2020: A recent report alleges that small businesses may be Image Thieves without even knowing it. To substantiate the allegation, the report by the copyright infringement experts at Copytrack states that 3 billion images are shared online every day out of 85% are either stolen or without the proper copyright clearance for commercial purposes. The biggest discoveries are found on the popular image-websites such as Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels, the report by project Legal Images said. The agency is said to have fighting for better copyright protection and more clear photo licensing online.

Reportedly, the hugely popular photo-platform Unsplash has reached more than 1 billion downloads since its launch in 2013. Together with fellow free-websites Pixabay and Pexels, it’s used daily by thousands of companies to find photos for their next newsletter, website, blog post or advertising campaign. However, this comes with a huge risk for small businesses all over the world.

Legal Images has launched the website legal-images.com to fight the copyright problems and create a more transparent image industry. “Even though there is also a legal part of the photo industry – with major players such as Shutterstock and Getty Images – the gray-zone is simply too massive,” says James Peterson from Legal Images.

The impact of this can be massive – not only for the ‘free’ image providers, but mainly for the millions of small and medium-sized companies that have been downloading and using the photos from these platforms. And Legal Images want changes to happen now to protect both copyright holders and small companies.