How legal is it to use a Bing image I found?

NOT a lawyer; however, just because an image is on the web and does not have a copy right sign does not mean that it's open domain. I would either consult a lawyer, or track down the owner. I'm not sure what you mean by "properties link," (right click?) but bing should have the page on which it's used. For example, one that I found goes to a flickr account. I would contact the owner of the flicker, find out if it's their photo, and if it is get permission IN WRITING to use it.

Hope this helps.

Luis said:

Hey everyone,

I found a great image I want to use as my book cover. I LOVE it.

But I can't find who it belongs to to ask for rights. It has no copyright sign next to it. The "properties link" only linked it back to two random uses on two Web sites. What do I do??

Click to expand...

In short, find an image where you can trace the original owner and obtain the rights. If you use it without obtaining permission, you're guilty of copyright infringement, even though it doesn't have the copyright sign next to it. Somebody, somewhere took the picture and like writing, creating the image automatically assigns the copyright to the person who created it.

What the folks above said.

If you don't have permission from the copyright holder, you cannot use it.

Try feeding the image url into TinEye to see if it brings up other pages it's been used on; one of these might help you track down the origin.

And if all else fails, grab your camera and find the nearest Catholic church.

Focus

There seem to be an increasing number of "public domain" free images sites cropping up. Some of them provide some free images, but then show you some others that you'd pay for. Some of the pay rates seem to have decreased from about 6 months ago as well.