Is it legal to post images of copyrighted products on your website if you took the photos yourself?

I'm not attempting to sell the items; it's just recommendations of certain beauty products. Is this legal?

Sure. You can endorse products and display photos you took yourself without copyright infringement.

Good question, by the way.


**** Edit **** : Posting photographs YOU took of a UPS truck or of the Hollywood sign is perfectly legal and is NOT copyright protected. The only photos you cannot legally post that you took are ones of landmarks which are a matter of security. (Like the inside of a nuclear weapons plant - not that they'd let you take a camera in there, anyway.)

Yes and No... some things have copyright protection like the Hollywood sign and either UPS or Fed Ex trucks. In some cases you need permission from people whose photos you take especially celebrities or models. Copyright law is a legal thing that is best answered by the product owners but if you are talking about merchandise I would think the beauty companies would be pleased to have their products displayed. The worst case scenario is a "cease and desist" order that would warn you to remove the images. Thus go for it!!!

No it is an infringement of the copyright. If you mean trade marked products, that's different. Let me explain.

A copyright is the right to reproduce material that is printed or displayed in some way, such as in film, book, web site, etc. This copyrighted item can be a book, photo, painting, article, web page. etc. Therefore if someone has copyrighted a picture, your displaying that picture violates the copyright. However, if you take a photo of a copyrighted book, displaying your photo would not violate the copyright, because it is the text of the book that is protected. A photo of a computer screen displaying a copyrighted web page would not infringe on the copyright because you are displaying more than the web page. A photo of just the web page alone could be considered an infringement, depending on how it is used.

If you take a photo of a trademarked product and display it, you are not violating the trade mark, because you are not reproducing the product. Displaying a bottle of nail polish or can of face powder that you want to recommend would not be an infringement. Magazines do this all the time in reviewing cars, cameras, and other products.