My initial reaction was looking for evidence that it was a one off.

It began with a man arguing that I should publish copyrighted images in his article, without permission, because people are being sued for using CC images anyway.

He sent me the Unsplash story. I found more detail on that story elsewhere. He said Pixabay is worse.

I was worried, so I posted a story hoping for reassurance, but I only got feedback that there is no safe option, except to use your own pics or buy them.

After that, I took to Google to find out if this was more than a one off.

To be honest, I spent as much time as I felt was necessary looking into it, for me to feel that I wasn't comfortable using CC pics more than is absolutely necessary going forward. If I can use my own photos, I will.

I was irritated that the man had shattered my peace of mind, but on reflection, I'd rather know, so I can make a decision on my stories going forward.

I never published the copyrighted images he was arguing about.

I felt the information was useful, and I have no idea what the actual risk is, but I know these legal demands can come out of the blue, so I'm changing my images, where I can.

I have also asked contributors to use their own images going forward when they submit. The article was written to explain why and was linked to my new contributor guidelines. It would have been unreasonable to clamp down on images accepted without explaining why.