I have this client who is a photographer and he wants a website designed for him. The idea that hit me is he wants to show case some of the photos from stock photo sites to his website.
As a moral view this does not look right. I want to know, even if we buy stock photos, will the stock photo site allow us to do that? We do use stock photos in our artwork/design.
The licenses of both iStock and Shutterstock require copyright notice and attribution where the images are displayed as themselves.
As a personal recommendation, I do not take on dishonest people as clients. This isn't only a matter of distaste: you cannot expect that someone who is dishonest with others will be honest with you.
From a contract and legal point of view it would depend on the rights given per the copyright holder. From and ethical point of view, and perhaps from a legal point of view, “How can he not be misrepresenting his work and business?”
One way to challenge this without perhaps losing the client is to try to get him to sign some sort of contract which includes language that the client assumes all responsibility and asserts that they’re entitled to any copyrighted material given to you.
