With the huge growth of viral media sites such as buzzfeed, and content sharing communities (like
reddit), the line between fair use and copyright has become a little blurred to say the least.
If you create and publish a high quality image - be that a photo, or a custom visual – there is a fair
chance that it will be 'borrowed' at some point by another website; generally with loose attribution, or
often with no credit at all.
Fortunately, as a smart marketer, this is something you can leverage to your advantage.
Each unattributed use of your original work is a link opportunity, and one in which you are in the rare
position of holding the upper hand. Reach out to those who have swiped your images, thank them for
using them, and ask for a link.
Here is a real world example of someone doing just that (a site I am involved with had inadvertently used
an image without attribution).