Why can't I upload images to websites?

Do you know any sites with non copywrited photos or images?

• Recently I started to create a paranormal themed website and I need photos and images to fill it with.Do you know any good sites with non copywrited images?the ones I found have little to no images on the subject.Would referencing solve things?Or is there any way to legaly use copywrited images. P.S:I see many websites , magazines and books where I live that use the same photos again and again and they share them with each other.They can all hold copywrites.Whats going on with them. P.S:I mean like the famous picture of the loch ness monster,the gray lady or such.They cant all hold copywrites to famous pictures like them but they still use them freely.

• Answer:

  Many pictures have copyright. Photographers make their living of it. Copyright is so important, that when you upload YOUR PERSONAL pictures in any social network, the TOS of the webpage covers the issue (http://www.steves-digicams.com/knowledge-center/how-tos/online-sharing-social-networking/protecting-copyrights-on-facebook-photos.html) Most "famous" pictures hold copyrights. This doesn´t mean you can´t use them, it means you must either pay (royalties) or ask for written permission (it depends of the copyright holder). Many sites have free images. Usually the "free" are low resolution and you must respect the added watermark. Most images wont suit you, as they are mainly intended for marketing campaigns (lots of happy smiling people and beautiful landscapes). Try gettyimages.com Don´t expect to use a copyrighted picture and get away with it. Service like TinEye make finding any picture quite easy. EDIT: TinEye is sort of a "reverse search" engine. You upload your photo, and it will tell you all the webpages where it appears (that´s what I hear it does, never used it though). Great tool for the owner of a copyright. You can even use it through a Firefox addon: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/tineye-reverse-image-search/ EDIT2: Interesting article on image copyright: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/internet/page5970.cfm