The Dutch author Kluun has blacked out his website. Why? Because the author used random pictures from Google Images in the past for his blogposts, without realizing that these might be protected by copyright (it's small print, but it is mentioned: "Image may be subject to copyright" at Google).
Recently the author has been haunted by lawyers seeking compensation for the use of the copyrighted material, or in the writer's words: "bloggers that used photography from Google Images are outlawed. Unfortunately, I only know this since a couple of years (and with me many other bloggers). It cost me thousands of euros and much frustration. For this reason I no longer post any photos anymore." Interesting to read, an author without knowledge of copyright laws.
The author could have prevented this misery, if he only had used Creative Commons licensed material. Ok, this was maybe a bit harder to find a decade ago, but nowadays this no longer is a problem. Just use the CC search engine!
Most interesting part is where the author says about his own work: "Do you want to use a whole column for your weblog, school magazine or local paper, fine with me. As long as you don't make money off it, you have my blessing. I won't send my publisher or lawyer to you (if I had one)." In fact, this is in so many words an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license!
Some time, he will make a new site without images, according to Kluun. But he can make one with imagery, he just has to choose the right license!
