Legal Question in Business Law in Massachusetts

Re: Use of Images Found Online

No.

Basically, most images are copyrighted, regardless of whether any copyright notice is attached. You can easily assume that most images that you see on the internet are not "free property" in the "public domain", but belong to someone.

If you want to try to track down the original photographer to find out if they will license you to use their photos, that is a possibility. It might not be practical, but it is about the only way to protect yourself against copyright claims.

Frankly, it is probably not worth the trouble, unless you can guarantee them a good income stream, and help them police unauthorized use of their images . (E.g., if you see the image without a copyright notice, and not on the photographer's website, and not on a known company's website, is it an authorized use? Likely not.)

Otherwise, you may find the original photographer or their assignee/publisher coming back against you with a very expensive claim.