Say “intellectual property” to a designer, and you’ll likely either be met with a eye-roll or a questioning look.

Why is this? As designers, it’s an integral part of our job. The issues of fair use, copyrights, and intellectual property apply to the works we admire, the source material we use, and indeed, our own projects.

Because it’s so rare that repercussions occur for the small-business designer, I feel that there’s a climate of nonchalant disdain for the concepts of intellectual property. I actually heard a student who was taking an introductory web authoring course say, “Google Image search is the greatest thing that’s happened to design.” I about fell out of my chair. No. NO.

In my opinion, it’s one of the worst things I could imagine. I shudder to think of all the photographers who have spent their valuable time and expense to capture perfect photos, and will never see a cent back where they might expect to. Sites like www.sxc.hu and www.iStockphoto.com, both of which I am a member of, have watermarks for the preview images that can be accessed on image search engines, and additionally, restrictions on usage.

sxc.hu used to have an option for photographers to have no restrictions on the use of their photos; that is, any member could use the photo for any purpose. Recently, that’s changed: now, any non-personal usage of any photo will, to some extent, require that the user ask permission of the photographer to use the image.

I can already hear the grumbling, but vastly beyond that, the silence of those who will simply ignore it. Honestly, photographers have to understand that this WILL occur. Designers and photographers exist in a larger, artistic community where work is shared, with or without the intention of others using and adapting others’ works.

However, to me, there’s no excuse for not asking permission anytime a source photo is used for profit (unless a contract is bundled in with the download, as is on iStockphoto). While I admit, I don’t ask permission from the photographers as I download photos, sxc.hu makes it extra-simple to do this later on. When a photo is downloaded from their site, it’s given a serial number that has two parts: the first is a code specific to the photo, and is searchable on their site. I maintain a directory of all the photographs I download. I keep the first part of the number, and replace the other, unnecessary half with some kind of identifying tag (i.e. “castle01″). So, should I use the picture down the road, it’s real simple for me to dig up the photo, then ask permission using the built-in messaging feature on the site.

I’ll get off my soapbox in a minute, don’t worry. All I hope is that those who read this will try to be better at contributing to a healthy, creative environment where artists, designers, and photographers can all feel safe about sharing their work. It wouldn’t help to share this with your friends either.

Besides, Google Image searching is cheap: you all can do better than that.