This page assumes you have an image. If the copyright to your image is unclear or not grantable, see the Getting Started page.
CORE TOOL!see Duke Scholarly Communication page (with blog and FAQs! Scholarworks.duke.edu
Fair Use vs Free Use. Is the image even copyrighted?! Many individuals and institutions claim a blanket rights policy. If you're using images of painting (not 3-D work) painted before the 20th century, the chances are it's public domain. The snake-in-the-grass issue is whether the photographer is claiming ownership under contract law. This does not apply for flat works (i.e., painting).
Creative Commons - A license agreement that any image-producer can make is something called "Creative Commons". There are several possible levels (free-to-use but cite me; free-to-use for none-commercial purposes, etc.). IF YOU LIMIT YOUR IMAGE SEARCHES TO WORK UNDER CC, IT'S A WHOLE LOT EASIER!
Fair Use - Most teaching- and paper-writing uses of images fall under the famous “fair use” provision (single use for scholarly purposes). Basically, fair use allows academics to use even copyrighted materials a single time to a limited audience without securing the permission of the copyright holder. This does not apply to educational use where an unmediated public would see it, particularly articles that are made open-source, archived theses and papers (there may be ways to still post these, however). Fair use is one of the most commonly misunderstood (frequently contested) copyright situations. Use the resources below to determine if your use counts as fair use.
Fair Use?Check out this site:
A Little more Formal discussion can be found at:
- Cornell’s copyright chart and the greater Cornell copyright site
- American Library Association Fair Use Evaluator Tool
- Stanford University's Copyright and Fair Use Center
But can I use it?! Answer Guides
- Art Libraries Society Guide to Image Use
- College Art Association’s Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual Arts (the rights of the image user, US)
- The Design and Artists Copyright Society (rights of the image owner, UK).
- Artist’s Rights Society. (rights of the image owner, US)
- Visual Resources Association Statement on Fair Use(assertion of image use--including non-art images)
Tip:Entities published before 1925in the US (1919 if you're in California under the 9th Circuit Court) are consider public domain unless the copyright has specifically been renewed.
Using a foreign-published work?
- http://outofcopyright.eu/- English-language copyright/fair use guide for European countries
Including work in a thesis/manuscript:
- Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis (Kenny Crews, 2013)
The Law - Image copyright is particular to each country. You’re bound to the copyright of the country where the image was made or where the copyright holder resides. In the US, image copyright falls under Title 17 (1909) variously revised 1973, 2011 and most recently 2014, known as the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 (P.L. 113-200). The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (1998) revised the law for electronic images. However, most accepted practice is based on legal precedent, not law. So, rather than citing law, copyright decisions are frequently determined by an important legal case.
Some Cases -
Fair use: Sundeman v. The Seajay Society, Inc., 142 F.3d 194 (4th Cir. 1998).
Reasonable, limited, andscholarly uses of materials are most likely to be fair use. A researcher at a nonprofit used quotations from an unpublished literary manuscript of historical and cultural interest, and she included those quotations in an analytical, oral presentation that she delivered to a scholarly society. Beware of Jerks
Keep in mind that many institutions and individuals claim copyright on material they don’t have rights to, or works totally out of copyright altogether.
- Highsmith case. Getty and Alamy find publicly available images, copyright their vending of them, and then assert their right, even to the creator of the image.
Foreign countries can claim rights to cultural property, even sites and landscapes
Venice 'Time Machine' Project Suspended
If you need to Get Permission for What You Use
Finding Rights Holders
- Watch File - Harry Ransom Center/Univeristy of Reading site to look might hold the rights for works by writers and artistshttps://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/watch/
Agreement Forms
License for Image UseForm - The University's form for getting permission to use an image/video.
Copyright--Libraries--Overkill
- The Rights and Permissions Handbook (American Alliance of Museum OSCI 1st Edition; Rowman and Littlefield, 2nd Edition),
- “Copyright Checkpoint,” and the “Copyright Cortex.”
- Helpful for Museum:RightsStatements.org and International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) t[back-end rights management and image services]
- The “Collections As Data” project and “Museum APIs” wiki are helpful
