Just curious...I have made some pretty amazing gifs, but I don't want to throw any banners up there if I am not supposed to use that material. I understand logos and everything shouldn't be in the ads, but whats the standard for advertising? I'm not necessarily asking if it is "okay" to use this, but if people do use this and if it's possible to get in trouble for it...? Relatively new so looking for advice.
if you use something you don't own the rights to, it is always "possible" to get in trouble, it's moreso about you assessing the likelihood of that happening and making the cost / benefit analysis. Different people have different thresholds for risk
I've gotten a few cease & desists in the past, but no lawsuits came out of it.
There's definitely some risk in using material that isn't yours. I would use caution if you use celebrity images like Oprah or Brad Pitt or something.
This isn't legal advice, so use it at your own risk.
It's definitely possible to get in trouble for using creatives that you don't own or have the rights to.
Does it stop most people? Nope.
Problem is the material that generally produces the best results... is not the sort of material you find on stock photo sites. And when you're testing hundreds of photos every day, in potentially a dozen different niches, how are you going to obtain it all legally?
For most affiliates, as mentioned above, it's a simple cost / benefit analysis.
That said, you can definitely reduce your exposure. The genius who came up with animated cartoon GIFs on landing pages had the right idea. You can also use sites like Fiverr to source amateur photography on the cheap. Or go on a capitalist rampage through Newbie Nudes...
There are a couple of adult-specific commissioned photography sites that you can potentially get images off - http://www.extralunchmoney.com for example.
And you could also create your own images with something like Daz Studio. Haven't tried that yet, but it might work - particularly because you can create completely impossible images...
I don't really worry about it, I run all my traffic international. My guess is these pron companies aren't too worried about a 3 sec clip being used on an ad/ don't have the resources to pursue all these people using their gif's. Only one of my banners have ever gotten taken down for a DMCA removal request.
Also aren't all the majority of the actual videos on tube sites ripped movies anyways?? I think they have bigger fish to fry when it comes to porn being downloaded illegally, file sharing sites ect.
It's all about risk / rewards , but in this case risks are pretty low.
The worst I've had was a DMCA and taking the banner down closed the issue.