Over the years a number of pictures taken by me got published in books, magazines, news papers , website and so on. One of my pictures was even selected as the 'Featured Picture' in Wikipedaia. On this appeared on the home page of Wikipedia.

The photographs I've contributed to Wikipedia are with under Attribution-ShareAlike rights, means anyone can use those pictures freely, provided they attribute the photographer.

Apart from those 'Attribution-ShareAlike' pictures on Wikipedia, many times I get requests for using my pictures on books, magazines, websites etc. I don't remember of turning down any requests so far.

Still I've come across many situations where people used my pictures without permission, including on news papers. I think this happens either due to the lack of courtesy or ignorance of the copyright norms, mostly a bizarre combination of either.

SOPA or not, using content without permission is not on the right side of the ethical and legal requirements.

I've always given permissions to use pictures free of cost, i.e., whenever I've been asked. At the most my condition (or even request!) has been to add the photographer credit or a courtesy link to my website.

So the moral of the story is simple. Do not steal when getting it free is an option!

If you find any of my pictures suitable for your websites, articles,magazine or books, just drop me a line. You can expect a fair response!