How do you track down the original creator of an image you want to use?

[bard2dbone]

Basically what the title says :   I want to use a pic I saw of a grainy photocopy of a picture with Bigfoot riding the Loch Ness Monster while a UFO flies overhead.

 

It kind of looks like a perfect album cover type pic.  All it's missing is the Title and my name...Except I didn't create it. And I don't like the idea of using something uncredited.

[Danidog]

Might be easier to get an image from something like shutterstock (if I remember the name correctly). You can buy the rights to use it for very little $$.

Or, google public domain images with a description of what you are looking for and see what comes up?

I used to buy images for bookcovers from shutterstock for as little as $3, but that was at least a decade ago.

[Danidog]

Just remembered another route, go to fiverr, they will make you a custom cover for $5. You just tell/describe to them what you want it to look like and they do the grunt work for you.

 

[john]

Honestly I think it’s a minefield.

 

Firstly, it is a photoshop composite of at least 3 images, that have their own copyright. The chances that copyright permission was obtained before creating a derivative work from all original copyright owners is pretty small. That said, the original images will be getting close to, if not passed the limit of copyright protection. In that case, if all 3 images are out of copyright, then the only copyright that would exist would be the copyright of the composite creator. First stage would be to look at the copyright of the original images.

[Danidog]

If you are referring to the piece the OP mentioned, you just don't know, but purchasing the rights to images is fairly easy, and safe, and by purchasing them from something like shutterstock has been very safe for a long time. The "contractors" at fiverr purchase the image rights (or have you purchase them), and create your composite. 

I don't know of anyone in the publishing world that has had a problem with either method and there have been tens of thousands used, and in use. Amazon (KDP) is VERY careful about what they allow to be used for covers. 

Finding a random composite image online and using it IS an iffy proposition.