Sourcing images for your website

When using images on your website it's essential to make sure that you do not infringe copyright. If you use images without permission, you will be breaking the law. Every image is a creative work, owned by an individual/company/organisation and if you or the University are not the image owner or you do not have permission to use the image (from the image owner) then you can’t legally use the image on your website.

If you are in any doubt as to whether or not you can use an image on your website then you must always ask the owner for permission.

Which images can I use on my UoL website?

In general, you can legally use images that you obtain from the following sources.

  • Images that you shoot yourself with a camera
  • The university’s Image Library. You will need to register to use this service.
  • Images that you buy from stock image websites (such as shutterstock).
  • Images that you download from free image websites (such as Stock.XCHNG)
  • Images in the public domain (although attribution to the original author is still required)

Which images can I not use on my UoL website?

In general, you cannot legally use images that you obtain from the following sources unless you have permission to do so from the owner of the image.

  • Images that you find on the internet, including:
      • Images from other people’s websites (personal and/or company websites and blogs)
      • Images from search engines (such as a Google image search)
      • Images from image hosting services (such as
  • Images that you capture from books and/or other printed material (using a capture device such as a scanner or digital camera)

If you find an image that you’d like to use, from any of the sources listed above, then you can always attempt to gain permission by making contact with the image owner, the website maintainer, or the book publisher etc.