Attention Lambert High School!
A Quick Lesson Concerning Online Fair Use Policy
YOU May Be Guilty!
-->Have you ever gone to Google Images for some pictures to put on a project?
-->How many times have you clicked Ctrl-C on wikipedia?
-->Do you think that the little warning of potentially copyrighted material everywhere online is annoying and doesn't apply to what you've searched for?
------------------------------------------> Then This Message Is For YOU!<-------------------------------------------
Lets Get Started With The Basics:
Copyright: An exclusive legal right to something given to the creator/originator of that thing. It also provides permission for that person to allow others to use his/her something.
Attribution: Regarding something as being a product of a particular author or artist, and acknowledging them in use of said product.
Fair Use: Legal Doctrine mandating that provided "fair and reasonable" circumstances, copyrighted material may be used without permission of the copyright owner.
Public Domain: Refers to something not subject to copyright due to belonging to the general public.
Digital Citizenship: The process of teaching people the ethics, responsibilites, and norms of online technological use. It establishes what is considered appropriate on the net.
Creative Commons License: A license given to the holder of a copyright that ensures they retain control of their property, whenever they allow others to copy, distribute, and use (but not profit from) that property.
Websites YOU Can Use Whenever You Want: Suppliers of Free Images
Freerange
A site that provides plenty of free stock photos, selected by the site following checks to ensure they are high-quality and not stolen from somewhere they once were not free. All images are free for commercial and/or private use.
Stockvault
A photo sharing website where users submit and comment on others' pictures. You don't have to sign up to access the photos, however, but they are strictly for private and personal use only.
FreeDigitalPhotos
This site provides tons of free images based around many different categories. A nominal fee applies only if you want a larger or higher quality photo, and images can be used in any way as long as not requested otherwise.
How Can You Tell If An Image Is Copyrighted?
- One of the easiest ways to tell if a picture is copyrighted is some sort of a mark on the digital picture. For example, a watermark, a copyright symbol, or even a note from the owner.
- If you want to, you can check the copyright office's listings, but this may take a while.
- Check the reason the image is being used. For example, is it being utilized in a commercial or non-commercial setting?
- Try to find the original picture online, and see how the owner feels about it. You can even ask permission to use it if you want!
- Above all, if you cannot tell if it is or isn't copyrighted, the best thing to do is use discretion and find another image. Better safe than sorry!