The rule is simple even if it is unwelcome: someone owns almost every image, video and song you find online, and using it without permission is infringement.
Fair dealing is narrower than "fair use"
Section 52 of the Copyright Act, 1957 lists specific exempted acts rather than a broad, flexible test. The main ones are fair dealing with a work for the purposes of private or personal use including research, criticism or review, and reporting of current events, together with a list of other defined situations. Indian law does not have the open-ended American fair use doctrine, so an argument that your use was "transformative" or "only promotional" carries far less weight here.
"I gave credit, so it is fine." Attribution is not a licence. Crediting the photographer establishes that you knew who owned it.
"It was on Google Images, so it is public domain." Google is a search index, not a rights clearing house. Public domain means the term of copyright has expired, which for most works is the author's life plus 60 years.
Music on reels and videos
A song involves several separate rights: the literary work in the lyrics, the musical work in the composition, and the sound recording. Using a popular track on a business reel needs clearance, and platform music libraries are licensed for personal use in ways that frequently exclude commercial and branded content. Read the platform's own terms; the licence you have as a personal user is not the licence a business needs.
How to use images safely
- Buy a stock licence and keep the receipt and licence terms on file
- Use genuinely free-licence sources, and check the specific Creative Commons terms, since some require attribution and some prohibit commercial use or derivatives
- Commission your own photography, with a written assignment
- Keep a record of the source and licence for every asset. When a demand notice arrives two years later, that file is your entire defence
If you receive a demand
These are commonly sent by agencies on behalf of photographers and the amounts claimed are often inflated. Do not ignore it and do not simply pay. Take down the image, establish what the actual licence would have cost, verify that the sender genuinely holds the rights, and respond. Most resolve at a fraction of the sum first demanded.