Copyright & Fair Use
When using media from outside sources, it is important to respect copyright. Copyright is a form of legal protection given to creators and their works. The intent of copyright is to do things like protect creators’ financial interests and to legally link creators to their works. When making projects strictly for educational purposes, like you are doing for this assignment, your use of sources does not infringe on copyright. The work you are doing, goes under what is known as Fair Use. Fair Use allows the reproduction of an excerpt of a work for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair Use of an item is determined by a Four-Factor Test:
Purpose and character of use = non-profit, educational use
Nature of item being used = non-fiction work
Amount to be used = small amount
Market effect on item = One time use
Media Use Expectations
When incorporating media into your projects, the following standard should apply:
- All media is relevant to the topic and is appropriately and logically incorporated, e.g., the text and media coordinate and compliment one another.
- All media is chosen based on the intellectual value and/or meaning it brings to the project.
All media is properly credited. - All media is of a quality resolution, e.g., the image is sharp. (see high vs low-resolution example)
Reusable Media Resources
Below are resources in which you can find all kinds of media. Please keep in mind that just because they are listed here does not mean everything is in the public domain or is copyright free. While you can claim “Fair Use,” you should still pay attention to what the various sites say in case there is a disclaimer on how the materials can be used and information on how they should be credited.
Images & Video Resources
- British Library About | Search Images
- British Library Catalog of Manuscripts About | Search Images
- Creative Commons Search (search for images, videos and music)
- Flickr Commons
- Getty Open Content Program About | Search Images
- Google Images advanced search (select a “free to use” user rights setting)
- Internet Archive
- Library of Congress & Library of Congress on Flickr
- Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Arts (LACMA)
- National Archives Virtual Library
- National Gallery for the Arts About | Search Images
- Old Book Illustrations
- Shared Shelf Commons (Artstor Open Access)
- Wellcome Images
- Wiki Commons