When launching a new website, ensuring that all text and visual assets comply with copyright law is of paramount importance. Whether used for fun or commercial gain, any creative work—including photography, graphics, logos, audio, and written content—is legally protected from the moment of creation. You must either own the copyright or hold explicit, written permission from the copyright owner to use it.
At Quality Website Design, we take intellectual property rights very seriously. This guide outlines your responsibilities regarding the content provided for your website build.
The risks and financial consequences of copyright infringement are highest when dealing with photography. All images and media displayed on your website must meet one of two criteria:
If you do not own a camera or are unfamiliar with licensing stock images, we are more than happy to source and purchase the correct licenses on your behalf.
A common temptation is to right-click and save images directly from Google Images. Every image found online is protected by copyright—a fact search engines and creators note explicitly. Furthermore, many seemingly "free" images online actually belong to major stock photography libraries.
Professional stock agencies utilize sophisticated automated tracking software embedded directly into image files. No matter how an image is cropped, resized, filtered, or altered, this tracking code remains active. Automated crawlers routinely scan live websites looking for unlicensed usage. Detection can take weeks or years, but unauthorized usage is ultimately caught, resulting in severe copyright infringement claims and substantial financial penalties from rights holders.
Any imagery provided by Quality Website Design will have been acquired through proper, legal channels. However, any images, logos, or media supplied to us by you will be assumed to be fully licensed or owned by you.
Liability Disclaimer: Quality Website Design accepts no legal or financial responsibility for images, graphics, or media provided directly by the client that are found to be in breach of copyright law. It is your sole responsibility to ensure you hold the legal right to use any materials you supply. If you knowingly provide unlicensed media, you agree that Quality Website Design holds zero liability for any resulting legal consequences.
Copyright law applies equally to the written word. A common shortcut during a website redesign is copying text directly from another company's website. This practice, known as plagiarism, constitutes a serious legal breach no different from using stolen imagery.
Just as with images, advanced software easily detects duplicated text across the web. If you supply copied text for inclusion on your site, it will eventually be flagged by automated audits.
It is impossible for us to independently verify the origin of every paragraph provided during a project. Therefore, all text supplied to us for your website must be original and written by you. If you choose to supply copied text, Quality Website Design will not be held responsible or liable for any legal proceedings or copyright claims that arise as a result.