Copyright protects digital items just as it does physical ones. However, in the digital environment it can be very difficult to see what copyright or license applies and even more difficult to track down a creator to ask for permission. So what can you do?
This includes Creative Commons and Public Domain; these works will be clearly labeled so that you understand what you need to do to edit or reuse them.
If you are using these materials in the classroom, as a student or instructor, your work may be subject to different guidelines. Remember, you will still need to provide citation information to give proper credit to your sources.
Thanks to technology, creating your own images and media is easier than ever before.
There are many sites where you can pay to be able to use images, videos, etc. We recommend pursuing the other three options first!
FOR CREATIVE COMMONS IMAGES:
Your attribution should follow this format, which adheres to Creative Commons best practices.
Title of image/video [linked to original image] by Author [linked to profile page] under License [linked to license deed].
FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN IMAGES:
Your attribution should follow this format:
Title of work [linked to original image] by Author, Date (if known, or n.d. if not known). Public Domain.
WORKS CITED FOR A WORK OF VISUAL ART: PRINT OR ONLINE REPRODUCTIONS
Artist LastName, FirstName. Title of Work. Date of Composition. Medium of Composition. Institution Housing Work, City Where Institution Is Located.
EXAMPLES:
Monet, Claude. Water Lily Pond. 1900. Art Insitute of Chicago, Chicago. Artic.edu. Web. 4 August 2014.
Kandinsky, Vasily. Orange. 1923. Museum of Modern Art, New York. WikiArt.org. Web. 25 July 2013.
da Vinci, Leonardo. Mona Lisa. 1503-1506. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris.
WORKS CITED FOR A WORK OF VISUAL ART: ONLY CITED ONLINE
Artist LastName, FirstName. "Title of Work." Date Created. Editor/Author/Compiler Name. Name of Website. Name of Website Publisher. Medium of Publication. Date of Access.
EXAMPLES:
javacolleen. "Lantern Floating." 2010. Flickr. Web. 2 December 2012.
Elson, John. "4Palmount." 2009. Wikimedia.org. Wikimedia Commons. Web. 4 August 2014.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Section 5.7.6 of the seventh edition of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
The sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association does not have guidelines for images, artwork, sculpture, photographs, etc. However, here are some guidelines from the APA Style Blog:
SOCIAL MEDIA PHOTO, GRAPHIC, OR PHOTO ALBUM
Creator, A. (Date Posted). Caption text [Medium]. Retrieved from http://website.url
EXAMPLES
VISUAL ART PIECE
Arist, A. (Year Created). Title of work [Medium]. Location of work: Institution housing work.
EXAMPLES
Public Domain: Works that you can use in any way you want to. Most works enter the public domain once intellectual property laws expire, but some enter because creators wish for their work to be available without copyright law restrictions.
The Copyright Act gives the owner of a copyright the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute their work. One exception to this exclusive right is called the fair use exception: The fair use exception permits the reproduction of a portion of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner's permission, under certain circumstances. This is a vitally important exception for education, as it enables students, scholars, and critics to use and reference copyrighted works in their own scholarship, teaching, and critiques.
Four factors are considered in all fair use evaluations. They are:
Resources below can help you understand these factors and determine if your situation qualifies under Fair Use.
See the resources below for guidelines about specific formats or educational situations.
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