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HST 352: American InJustice (Deno): The Prison as a Social History of the US: Using Images & Media: Creative Commons & Fair Use

This guide serves to assist HST 352 students in navigating various media in order to execute social justice research. It will also support students in various assignments throughout the semester.

Using Images & Media

Everything on the Internet is not true. Likewise, everything on the Internet is not free for you to use.


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?

Use media with stated licenses

 

 

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.

See if your situation qualifies as Fair Use

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.

Create your own media

Thanks to technology, creating your own images and media is easier than ever before. 

Purchase the rights to use items

There are many sites where you can pay to be able to use images, videos, etc. We recommend pursuing the other three options first!

Attributing Images

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 AuthorDate (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. 

  • If you are citing a work that has been reproduced in the online environment, remove the medium of composition and add this string to the end of your citation:  Website Title. Medium of Publication. Date of Access.
  • If the year of composition is unknown, us N.d.
  • If the work is from a private collection, name the collection (Collection of ...) instead of the institution. Or list "Private Collection" in place of the institution and city if the collector wishes to be anonymous. 

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.

  • If there is no editor/author/compiler or date of website creation, skip those sections.
  • If the year of composition is unknown, us N.d.
  • If the work is available under a username, include that in place of the artist's name.

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

  • If no caption is provided, place a description of the image in brackets in its place.
  • If you are are citing a photo album, replace the caption text with the title of the album. Italicize the title.

EXAMPLES


VISUAL ART PIECE

Arist, A. (Year Created). Title of work [Medium]. Location of work: Institution housing work.

  • If you are viewing the piece online, leave off the location information for the piece. Instead, end your citation entry with "Retrieved from http://website.url"

EXAMPLES

More Information

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 exceptionThe fair use exception permits the reproduction of a portion of a copyrighted work without the copyright owner's permission, under certain circumstancesThis 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:

  • Purpose & character
  • Nature of the work
  • Amount
  • Effect 

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.

Edit or Create your Own Images

WEB APPS

SOFTWARE

WORD CLOUDS

MAPS

CONTACT

Email Butler University Libraries
Irwin Library: 317-940-9227
Science Library: 317-940-9937

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