I am seeing so much of this lately, and it makes me feel kind of icky.
If you go to Pinterest.com, you can search “Episode Interactive Backgrounds” and thousands of results will come up. Amazing, that doctor’s lab background that you needed? There! A side street that overlooks Seattle by a fish market. Impressive. Almost too good to be true…
Unfortunately, it is. Many people, on Pinterest, do not own the images they share. Let me give you an example:
You make a beautiful drawing for your friend for two hundred dollars. You worked very hard on this drawing and you are happy that you friend will use it. One day, you see that someone else is using your drawing. But they didn’t pay for it. It isn’t their’s to use.
Consequences include…
Copyright infringement. Look it up. There are multiple negative results from copyright infringement, from Google contacting you to other issues.
Let’s look more into this.
Many of the backgrounds on Pinterest come from:
- An art site. These digital art sites offer a place for artists to share their art that they made for other people. It isn’t a forum that says: HERE TAKE MY ART AND USE IT!
- An online game. Yes, online games like Choices or other interactive games also have backgrounds. You can’t use them outside their app.
- Anime. Anime backgrounds look very similar to Episode backgrounds, but they are still copyrighted. They might appear in a movie or a show, and that means someone out there has been paid to make them. Not for you.
How do I know that it is copyright free?
Great question! Save the image (right click) or take a screenshot of it. Go to images.google.com and upload it there. If there is a result for it that is not where it was originally found, it’s probably not for you.
Let’s go through an example:
We searched Episode Interactive backgrounds. Let’s click on what that snags our fancy.
We picked this image. A reception background! Perfect.
It looks like we are at an art website. NOTE: The majority of art from Deviantart.com is not okay to use.
There’s our answer. The artist says that these were made for a client.
VERDICT - NOT FREE TO USE.
I know this feels pretty despondent, but please feel free to drop any artists/editors whose art is free for Episode use! I, for example, make backgrounds on my Instagram, @taliewrites.
Here are sites that have free, good backgrounds:
- Pixabay
- Unplash
- Pexels
Do not use from this site:
- Google (unless you have established filters)
- Stock photos