Can you use creative commons non-commercial images on a company blog?

[ProjectLabs]

Does anyone know if it is okay to use creative commons images on your company blog if they are under the Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license. Technically you are using it on a commercial site, but you are not directly making money from the image or selling it.

[edwardrj]

If you message or email the owner and ask for permission, you can avoid stepping into that fuzzy gray area.

[EGOL]

There is no standard answer to your question.  In addition to Mcarle's great answer, you can see what the creator of an image has to select from here...  http://creativecommons.org/choose/

[Mcarle]

From the CCsite:

• Attribution — You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

• Noncommercial — You may not use this work for commercial purposes.

• No Derivative Works — You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work.

It seems to me that the CC is designed to share NOT to try and sell, your blog is selling your business.

Many blogs have sales links right on them.

Several other factors are also in play:

1. Many people are savvy enough to spot "stock" images, is using images that are seem over and over again what you want your company to be known for?

2. If your company is based on any sort of creativity, clients will know that your just reusing old images as apposed to creating new fresh creative ones.