13 Everyday Things You Do That Can Get You Sued (and How To Protect Yourself)

Sharing a funny picture online

Love that funny meme that’s been going around? Resist the temptation to share it on your Facebook or Instagram, as taking pictures from the internet and posting them to your blog or social media can open you up to a copyright lawsuit, says Tanisia Nicole Moore, a virtual intellectual property lawyer at Moore Legal Solutions, LLC. “We are all guilty of sharing an image online, but what most people don’t realize is that these images are protected through copyright law,” she explains. “The owner of the image can then sue you for using their work without permission.” This is true even for images that don’t have a watermark or visible copyright symbol or were posted years ago, nor does it matter if you weren’t the original person to share the image. These online-sharing copyright lawsuits have exploded in recent years, and any person who posts any picture or video they don’t personally own is vulnerable to getting sued for thousands of dollars for a goofy cat picture they posted ten years ago.

Protect yourself: Only post your own pictures or videos that you’ve taken yourself with your own equipment or purchase an image from a reputable stock photo site. And whatever you do, stop passing on funny pictures or videos others send you and immediately delete any existing on your social media accounts, even if they’re years old.

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