Copyright for Digital Media

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

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

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

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

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:

References