More than once recently, I have had to play image cop with some websites I work with. It seems really easy to do a Google Image search and find the photo you want to use for a piece of website content.

I don’t want to get into the copyright issues, those aren’t too debatable. But I think it speaks to the greater value we put on the content we create. I am consistently asked for information on free stock images.

With sites like istockphoto.com providing some quality (high standard) artwork starting around $1, good art is not out of reach for any budget.

(Of course I mentioned that to one client, and later saw an iStock image with the copy-protection watermark well in place)

Here is the question worth thinking about. Is the content worth $1?

If you are looking for free or stolen art, the answer is probably no. If you are not intersted in investing in the content, why would you expect your visitor to invest their time into its consumption?

It does not mean you have to pay for an image every time. If you have something in your catalog already, or have a great free source, that’s great! But if you are only choosing the free source because of the cost, you are not putting any value on the content itself.
Give your content the respect it deserves.