When can a picture you find online be used in an online profile?
<p>I noticed a new feature on LinkedIn where you can upload a background image. I then found <a href="http://freelinkedinbackgrounds.com/" rel="nofollow">this website</a> that offers images to use. Can any image be used even considering LinkedIn profiles are meant for personal profit, in an indirect sense? Nowhere in the linked to site does it explicitly say "you are free to use our images" but can it be implied?</p>

<p>You can't use a copyrighted image but often times on the internet you don't know what the license of the image is. How do you know what the license for the image is?</p>

<p>When an image is created, it will generally be protected by copyright and its author will own that copyright.</p>

<p>That author might transfer that copyright to others, or might licence the use and reproduction of that image under certain conditions (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license" rel="nofollow">Creative Commons Licenses</a>, for example). Details about copyright ownership or licensing status are sometimes included alongside a work, but in many cases, these details are not published prominently or at all. Lack </p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Finding_images_tutorial" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia has some good guidance</a> on how to find images that you would be free to use, including advice on how to ask for permission when you are unsure of a work's copyright or licensing status.</p>

<p>There is such a thing as an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implied_license" rel="nofollow">implied license</a>, but this generally only applies to works for hire, or for use within the norms and traditions of a particular community. Images that you find on random websites around the internet would not generally be available for reproduction under an implied license.</p>

copyright internet licensing