The IMMJ program takes copyright seriously. If your assignments include music, images or graphics that you don’t have permission to use, regardless of your intentions – your work may fail assessment under academic misconduct (depending on the seriousness of the case). Copyright infringement also constitutes professional misconduct and you also put yourself in risk of legal action. This guide provides a guide and resources regarding copyright for students using images, video, and music for assignments.
What is Copyright? – Copyright is a legal right that exists in most countries, that gives people ownership over the things they create. It could be a painting, a photograph, a poem a piece of music, a map – whatever it is, whoever created it, owns it. No one else (unless they have the owners explicit permission) can use their stuff. That means nobody can:
- reproduce the work
- use it to create derivative works
- distribute copies of the work
- display the work publicly
Please note, attribution (giving a byline) does not mean you can use anyone else’s work. Imagine if someone stole your pictures from your website to use in their work and simply gave you a credit. Just because it’s on the internet does not mean you can use it!
So if you’re looking for material to use or reuse, you should not do any of the things above without:
- asking permission
- buying permission
- confirming that the work is in the public domain, which means that the copyright has expired and all of the above rights have been forfeited.
- confirming that the work has a creative commons license
Your own work is copyrighted too! – Copyright protection happens automatically as soon as your work is created. You don’t need to register your work to ensure your rights are protected by copyright. You created it and you own it and no one else can use it unless you give or sell permission to them.
What are Creative Commons? – Pretty much everything you need to know in this clear, concise video
Music You Can Use – When using any of the sources listed below, check the copyright and/or licensing agreement associated with each source. Not all music on these sites are free to use but many are
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Musopen – A searchable library of open source music.
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ccMixter – A community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.
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Free Sounds – A collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.
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Jamendo – A database where artists allow anyone to download and share their music.
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Vimeo Music Store – Can search for a Creative Commons license or free tracks to find songs that can be used with an attribution.
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Sound Cloud – Many songs and sounds that can be used. Once you do a search you can use the filter results on the side and indicate what you want to use it for and it will limit your results. (Credit: University of Iowa)
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Wikimedia Commons – Material that is posted to Wikimedia Commons by users. Most of the items are free. Information is posted below each item about how it can be used.
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Links to Free Music – An article from Noupe.com with several sites that contain free music. Includes great sources like audiofarm.org and freemusicarchive.org.
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YouTube Audio Library – YouTube’s library of more than 150 royalty-free instrumental tracks to choose from.
Images You Can Use – When using any of the sources listed below, check the copyright and/or licensing agreement associated with each source. Not all images on these sites are free to use but many are
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Creative Commons – Database of digital media works available for others to build upon legally and to share.
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flickr – Image hosting website where some images are freely open to use.
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Open Clip Art – Images that are in the public domain and can be used any way you’d like.
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Getty Images – Getty Images has recently made many photos free to use on blogs and social media websites and has an embed tool to use. There will be a small “Getty images” in the bottom right corner of the images.
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Advanced Google Images – Filter Google Images in Advanced search for results that have usage rights.
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Earth Science World Image Bank – Database of geoscience images available for educational use.
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National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Image Database – Collections of images in public domain of animals, geography, and cultures.
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Science.gov Image Search – Federated search for biological and environmental, oceanic and atmospheric, and aeronautics and space images. Search and select multimedia to get images.
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PicDrome – Images that have been donated to the public domain for educational and commercial use.
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World Images – Free images from California State University that focus on art and can be used for non-profit educational purposes with credit to the copyright holder.
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Wikimedia Commons – Material that is posted to Wikimedia Commons by users. Most of the items are free. Information is posted below each item about how it can be used.
Video You Can Use – When using any of the sources listed below, check the copyright and/or licensing agreement associated with each source. Not all video on these sites are free to use but many are
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Internet Archive – Many public domain video clips that are available for streaming and downloading.
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National Park Service B-Roll Video – Video from the National Park Service that is in the public domain.
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YouTube – Some videos can be used for free. Find them by typing in search terms, click on filters in the upper left-hand corner of your search results, and under the features column choose Creative Commons to limit your results.
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Vimeo – Contains some videos that can be used for free. Type in a search term, choose “Show Advanced Filter,” and choose Creative Commons to limit your results.
An exception to the rule – Fair Use – There is an exception to the rule of copyright – that is Fair Use, which allows for some limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the copyright holder. Take a look at these resources for more information.
- Fair Use – A great explanation of Fair Use by Stanford University Libraries. It includes a list of several concrete case studies.
- Fair Use Checklist – A useful tool from Columbia University Libraries that will help you begin your own assessment to see if using someone else’s content in your work constitutes fair use.
- Fair Use Evaluator – Another interactive tool to help to evaluate Fair Use.
- How to Legally Use Copyrighted Images [Infographic] – brilliant flowchart and checklist
We’ve missed something – Content on Social Media
So, we recommend two resources, the first is a short overview the second is long and in-depth.
1) ‘Can I use your picture?’: Copyright advice for working with eyewitness media fairly from #IJF16
2) “A Journalist’s Guide to Copyright Law and Eyewitness Media,” from First Draft News with guidance journalists deal with images, videos, and information captured by people who witness news. The guidebook includes country-specific advice for journalists in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia and Finland. It also looks at some common misconceptions, including:
Terms of service don’t trump copyright. While you can reshare and embed from platforms including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, that doesn’t mean you can use the content in them off-platform without permission of the copyright owner, according to First Draft’s guide.
As a case in point, Twitter’s Terms of Service state that, as the uploader, ‘You retain your rights to any content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. What’s yours is yours — you own your content (and your photos and videos are part of the content).’
Embedding might be OK. But is it ethical?
Legally, you don’t need permission from someone to embed their content, but consider the ethical implications, the report recommends.
For instance, moving a piece of content from a social platform (where someone might only have 100 close friends and family members as followers) to the front page of a news website significantly changes the potential impact for the person who uploaded the content because their username is viewable and clickable.
Fair use isn’t a blanket.
First Draft News has updated their original post on this to read:
A common misconception is that ‘fair use’ is a reliable legal defense when working with eyewitness media, however, specific and important restrictions apply depending on jurisdiction and relating to type, newsworthiness, attribution and whether the content is already accessible to the public. Fair use should only be explored (with appropriate legal assistance) as a last resort once all efforts have been made to secure permission to use an eyewitness photograph or video.
It’s Complicated, seek permission where possible
Whether an image is newsworthy or already published on social media doesn’t mean it can be used without permission, Osterreicher wrote, and providing credit isn’t a substitute for permission. “As I said at the beginning — It’s complicated! The best course of action is to seek permission first and remember the golden rule of ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ — who would want their property taken without someone asking permission first?”
If you do use UGC, you’ll need to verify it. Try these resources:
- https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/verifying-online-information-the-absolute-essentials/
- https://firstdraftnews.org/en/education/course/verification-quick-start/2/
References