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Informative article about Creative Commons

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As K-12 educators, you face unique challenges when it comes to using the Web. Not only are you trying to find resources to aid your teaching, but you're also on the lookout for resources that your students can use -- legally, technically, and socially. With so much out there, it can be difficult to figure out what is and isn't suitable for classroom use -- not to mention what will interest students long enough to tear them away from what's trending on social media.

One set of tools, known as Creative Commons licenses, can help address some of these challenges, while also enriching the teaching process and empowering learners of all ages.

What are Creative Commons licenses?

Creative Commons licenses are free copyright licenses that creators can use to indicate how they'd like their work to be used. Creators can choose from a set of six licenses with varying permissions, from the most open license to the least open license.

The most open license, and the license generally recommended for open educational resources, or OER, is Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). CC BY means that anyone may distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon the creator's work, even commercially, as long as they give credit. All CC licenses require attribution; on top of attribution, the creator may choose to add a combination of three other conditions, which result in the rest of the licenses you see here. For example, if creators want to prohibit commercial uses, they would add the NonCommercial condition; if they want to require that downstream users also reshare their adaptation under the same terms, they would add the ShareAlike condition; if they want the work to be redistributed unchanged, they would add the NoDerivatives condition.

More than half a billion CC-licensed works exist on the Web free for teachers and students to use, build upon, and share. Many of these works are educational resources that have been licensed by teachers, educational organizations, schools, and even the government.

You can do the same on Flickr Advanced Search. You can also browse the entire CC Flickr library by license at http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/. In addition to CC-licensed photos, Flickr hosts a commons of photographs with no known copyright restrictions from various cultural heritage institutions at http://www.flickr.com/commons/.

If you're looking for educational resources such as textbooks or lesson plans, check out this list of the most popular educational websites with open educational resources: https://open4us.org/find-oer/.

How do you attribute creators of CC-licensed content?

Students learn to cite sources as part of educational and academic norms from a young age. Since all Creative Commons licenses require attribution, they can be a good starting point for teaching students about when and how to give credit to authors for their works. Our Best Practices for Attribution offers examples for anyone to follow, including teachers and students, for giving attribution.

In general, we encourage teachers to use the TASL acronym when teaching students how to attribute. TASL stands for Title, Author, Source, and License. For example, this photo from CC's 10th birthday celebration was taken from Flickr.

An ideal attribution would include all four elements (TASL) and look like this:

" Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" by tvol is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Title? "Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco"
Author? " tvol" - linked to the author's profile page
Source? " Creative Commons 10th Birthday Celebration San Francisco" - linked to Flickr page where original photo exists
License? " CC BY 2.0" - name of license linked to license deed, which is https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

More examples by media type and a full explanation of what should be included can be found at https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Best_practices_for_attribution.

Why do CC licenses and open educational resources matter?

CC licenses are the legal tools that help you discover, share, remix, and build upon educational resources, which is what makes them open educational resources, or OER. In a sense, CC licenses are the infrastructure of roads underlying the ecosystem of OER to make reuse and sharing possible. As long as the roads are properly maintained -- that is, the CC licenses/legal tools are kept up to date -- creators have more options for how to share their works, educators have easier means of discovering and sharing OER, and students are empowered to build on what came before.

A whole culture of remix and creativity has been born on the Web, and many students are taking part whether they know it or not. Creative Commons and OER enable students to take full advantage of what's possible in a completely legal way with free and open resources and tools, not to mention that CC is a great way to kick off conversations about what sharing on the Web means -- and when and how to share appropriately.

For ideas on how to incorporate CC-related creative and remix activities into the classroom, browse through the resources at Creative Commons for K-12 Educators, a free online course that's part of the School of Open. Shared Creations: Making Use of Creative Commons (PDF) is a great handbook with classroom activities on the topics of copyright, the public domain, and Creative Commons. Other fun activities to do with your students include the Get CC Savvy challenge and Teach Someone Something with Content. Check out more exercises and courses like this at http://schoolofopen.org.

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What Is Creative Commons and Why Does It Matter? | Common Sense Education

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As K-12 educators, you face unique challenges when it comes to using the Web. Not only are you trying to find resources to aid your teaching, but you're also on the lookout for resources that your students can use -- legally, technically, and socially.

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Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse Sets

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Library of Congress Free to Use and Reuse Sets

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This portal features content that is free to use and reuse.

This page features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use. Each set of content is based on a theme and is first featured on the Library's home page.

These sets are just a small sample of the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The digital collections comprise millions of items including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. Whenever possible, each collection has its own rights statement which should be consulted for guidance on use. Learn more about copyright and the Library's collections.

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Free to Use and Reuse Sets | Library of Congress

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This portal features content that is free to use and reuse.

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A Guide to Little-Known Image Collections

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A Guide to Little-Known Image Collections

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I'm often asked where to go to find high-quality and hi-resolution still images for reuse so I've put together this guide. There have been several new image collections that have opened up to the public just within the past year that not many people are aware of yet, but they offer access to thousands, or in some cases millions of outstanding photographs that can be downloaded for free. Here's a quick guide to finding those collections.

Last month, the Metropolitan Museum of Art made over 400,000 images available for free download for non-commercial use as a part of its Open Access for Scholarly Content initiative. These beautiful images include the treasures owned and displayed by the Met such as famous paintings, armor, statues, art objects, and more. All images can be found on this website and are identified with the acronym OASC.

In January, The Wellcome Library in London made 100,000 art and medicine images available online for open use. This collection is where to look for offbeat, bizarre photos including medical art of all types including manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photography and advertisements. The images here are absolutely fantastic. The images may be used for commercial or personal purposes, with an acknowledgement of the original source (Wellcome Library, London).

Last summer, the J. Paul Getty Trust announced that they will be "making roughly 4,600 high-resolution images of the Museum's collection free to use, modify, and publish for any purpose." There are now 87,000+ images in that collection. Images include paintings, manuscripts, drawings, photographs, and more and feature works by masters Rembrandt, Van Gough, David, and more. Open content images are identified with a "Download" link which can be found by clicking into the "Primary Title" link to access the full record.

Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google. Images include famous personalities such as Marilyn Monroe, Charles Lindbergh, etc. as well as photos of American history and Americana. You can browse the collection from here or add "source:life" to any Google image search and search only the LIFE photo archive. For example: computer source:life. These are for personal, non-commercial use only.

The Museum of New Zealand has recently made over 30,000 images available for download and re-use in high resolution as a part of its Collections Online library. It's best to search this page after first checking the "with downloadable images" check box so that you only get results that are free for download. Each image specifies its license, many of which are remixable and have no copyright associated with them at all.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration makes thousands of stunning high resolution images available for download for free. The photo library is organized into collections such as the National Weather Service Collection containing over 4,000 weather-related images, the National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL) Collection, the Fisheries Collection, and many more, see the full list of collections here. The photos can be viewed by browsing the galleries or the catalogs for each collection. It's better to view the catalogs in all cases since not all images are included in the galleries. Most NOAA photos and slides are in the public domain and CANNOT be copyrighted while a few photos are known to have copyright restrictions are so noted. Credit MUST be given to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Department of Commerce.

The National Archives and Records Administration offers a fantastic library of photographic images including photos of Churchill and Roosevelt, Nixon and Elvis, JFK and Jackie, World War II photos, and many many more historical photos. You can find many of them through the above-linked online exhibits page, while others are available on their Flickr page, and thousands more can be found within their Online Catalog. All of the U.S. National Archives' images that are part of The Flickr Commons are marked "no known copyright restrictions." As for the rest of the site; "generally, materials produced by Federal agencies are in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission."

It's not very well known, but the US Dept of Agriculture has some fantastic high res photos available for download that are copyright-free, public domain, images of crops, animals, insects, food, plants, and more. I've been using their photos for many years now for art projects, there are over 2,000 images in their galleries.

NASA has hi-res image collections available both on their website and on Flickr. Here you can find images of the Mars Utopian Plain, the moom landing, astronauts, space shuttles, and so much more. NASA images are generally not copyrighted.

Others

Searching the Web for Images by License

Google

Google's Advanced Search form allows you to specify usage rights in your search so you can be sure to return results that match your preferred license.

Flickr

Flickr's Advanced Search allows you to specify that your search only returns image results with Creative Commons licenses attached to them.

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9 Little-Known Treasure Troves of High-Res Images

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I'm often asked where to go to find high-quality and hi-resolution still images for reuse so I've put together this guide. There have been several new image collections that have opened up to the public just within the past year that not many people are aware of yet, but they offer access to thousands, or in some cases millions of outstanding photographs that can be downloaded for free.

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TeachersFirst Free Image Special Topics Page

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TeachersFirst Free Image Special Topics Page

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TeachersFirst's Free Image Resources
Other TeachersFirst Special Topics Collections
This curated list of resources provides free image tools. As educators, it is important for us to set good examples of digital citizenship. Image usage is a perfect time to discuss the important topics of copyright, Creative Commons, and more. Use your discussions related to copyright and Creative Commons to fuel the discussion about digital citizenship. Read the classroom use suggestions for additional ideas about how to implement these tools in your classroom.
Don't miss our Special Topics Page - View our complete list of tagged items related to View our complete list of tagged items related to Creative Commons. . Copyright and Fair Use Resources.

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This curated list of resources provides free image tools. As educators, it is important for us to set good examples of digital citizenship. Image usage is a perfect time to discuss the important topics of copyright, Creative Commons, and more. Use your discussions related to copyright and Creative Commons to fuel the discussion about digital citizenship.

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Royalty free music

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Fast & Easy

Every download gives you access to high quality files. You don't even need to create an account

Royalty Free

All of our tracks can be used for free on Youtube and other video streaming platforms. Learn More.

100% Safe

We produce the music ourselves, so we can provide you with the rights to use all the tracks

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Every download gives you access to high quality files. You don't even need to create an account All of our tracks can be used for free on Youtube and other video streaming platforms. Learn More.

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Free library of images celebrating student learning and teacher collaboration

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American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action

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A free library of images celebrating student learning and teacher collaboration in seven schools across the United States. "American Education: Images of Teachers and Students in Action" contains more than 700 original print-quality photos of real preK-12 students and teachers.

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Classroom-related Images

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Try our Other Websites!

Storyboard That - Create Engaging Storyboards, Graphic Organizers and Infographics!
Quick Rubric - Easily Make and Share Great Looking Rubrics!
abcBABYart - Create Custom Nursery Art

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Classroom Photos - FREE Creative Commons Photos of Classroom

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Try our Other Websites! Storyboard That - Create Engaging Storyboards, Graphic Organizers and Infographics! Quick Rubric - Easily Make and Share Great Looking Rubrics! abcBABYart - Create Custom Nursery Art

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Beautiful Free Images & Pictures | Unsplash

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Beautiful, free images and photos that you can download and use for any project. Better than any royalty free or stock photos.

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Free icons and photos

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Noun Project: Free Icons & Stock Photos for Everything

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Noun Project has the most diverse collection of free icons and stock photos. Download SVG and PNG. Over 5 million art-quality icons and free photos.

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Guide for students and teachers for using images and copyright

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This post was first published in 2017. It was updated October 27, 2018.
Students' classwork is becoming increasingly digital. Whether creating a slideshow, blog post, presentation, or document, images are always needed. Teachers also regularly need images for class blog posts, assignments, presentations, course work etc.

This guide walks you through the process of easily and ethically finding quality images for classroom use.

Want a free eBook to learn the basics of copyright, Creative Commons and finding free images? Just enter your email address here and I'll send it to you. It's an extension of the information in this post plus a number of printable posters you can use in your classroom.

Where Do Students And Teachers Find Images?

There are five main choices for teachers and students looking for images. Let's go over the choices (spoiler alert: number 5 is the easiest option!)...

1) Do they create their own images?

This is a safe option. Students and teachers can take their own photographs and/or create images with online tools like BeFunky, Canva, Piktochart, Adobe Spark etc.

The downsides are:

They might need an image of something they can't photograph or create

The image creation process can be time-consuming and take away from the actual point of the assignment

Some online tools are 13+

2) Do they purchase images?

We know purchasing stock photography isn't really an option for students and schools BUT it's still important to talk about.

We pay a hairdresser when we get a haircut, pay a baker for a loaf of bread, so why not pay a photographer for their work? Many businesses pay for stock photos when they need images for their documents, websites, and other work.

This is worth students and teachers being aware of.

3) Do they use Google Images?

From my experience, many students learn how to search and download Google Images early in their schooling. They might pick up this skill themselves or learn it from friends, teachers, or parents. Unfortunately, this is also often the default option teachers fall back on.

While this is a quick way to find the image you desire, it's generally not a good option to rely on Google Images.

Although you can do an advanced search to find Creative Commons images, most images in your standard Google search are protected by copyright.

Even if you cite the source of the image, you are not allowed to use images that are protected by copyright. This is called copyright infringement; it is illegal and unethical.

4) Do they use Creative Commons Images?

5+ years ago I was teaching my student bloggers (aged 7-10) how to source and attribute Creative Commons images for their blog posts and online work. I created a handout to guide students through this process.

This was a worthwhile task, yet it required a certain investment in time to develop the students' understandings.

There are a number of Creative Commons licenses to understand, not to mention the concepts of locating, saving, and attributing images. Again, going through this process repeatedly can take away from the actual learning intentions for your lesson.

Tip: Not sure what the difference between copyright and Creative Commons is?

Copyright means the person who took the photo (or created the work) does not allow anyone to use it. Everything that's published online is protected by copyright by default.

Creative Commons means the person who took the photo (or created the work) does allow people to use it IF they agree to certain terms, called licenses. Read more about Creative Commons Licenses.

Learn more about copyright and Creative Commons in simple terms in my free eBook.

5) A Solution: Copyright Free Images

Fortunately, over the past few years, there has been a rise in the availability of free images that are licensed under public domain or Creative Commons Zero (CC0). This is the easiest way to find images for your work.

Public domain works can be used freely for any purpose. Their licenses have expired, or they are released with no restriction on their usage.

CC0 is a Creative Commons license that allows copyright owners to release their works with no usage restrictions.

Some of these sites with CC0/public domain images can be very useful in the classroom, however, they're not all created equal.

Some copyright free image sites:

Include some inappropriate content

Have age restrictions

Have confusing advertising for other websites with paid stock images

All these obstacles can lead back to an ineffective workflow and present obstacles to digital fluency. Let's break down the best sites so you can decide what will suit you and your students.

Six Useful Options For Copyright Free Images

I have curated six useful sites where students and/or educators can search for free images to use without restriction.

Scroll down to see a table that compares the features of all six resources.

This popular website has a large range of excellent quality images, regularly donated by photographers worldwide.

Images can be used freely for any purpose without permission or attribution.

The user experience is excellent. The Unsplash website is easy to search and browse. The advertisements are minimal/unobtrusive.

There is the option of signing up to join the Unsplash community where you can organise image collections and even submit photos yourself. However, you don't have to register to download photos.

There is an app available for iOS and a Google Slides Add-on.

Users are required to be 13 +.

This is another excellent site. It is similar to Unsplash in that:

High quality images are donated by photographers

Sign up is optional

Images can be used freely without attribution

It's easy to search and navigate

Unlike Unsplash, Pixabay also includes free videos, illustrations, and vector graphics. Another benefit is the availability of a free app. iOS | Android

A minor interruption to the workflow is that a Captcha image needs to be typed in before downloading and image, unless you're a registered user.

When you're on the download page some suggested similar images show up from paid stock photo sites. Students would need to be made aware of this so they understand they are not free photos (this could be a worthwhile teaching point: how to distinguish between free resources and paid advertisements).

Pixabay does have a SafeSearch option which would certainly be a good option if used properly.

Another handy feature is the addition of a Microsoft Office plug-in to grab images for Word and PowerPoint without leaving your document.

Users are required to be 16+.

Images on Pexels are either sourced from other photo sharing websites, or uploaded by users.

Photos can be used freely without attribution. Additionally, there is a free video page, and an app.

This site also has the option to sign up but it's not a requirement.

Like Pixabay, there is some suggested content from paid stock photo sites.

This service is for users aged 13+.

Photos For Class is a good option for younger students. The terms of service state that children under 13 can use Photos for Class under the supervision of a parent, guardian, or teacher.

The other advantage of Photos For Class is the images are apparently filtered and age-appropriate. They come from Flickr and Pixabay.

Unlike the three above options, the images require attribution, however, this information is automatically included when you download an image. The attribution appears as a caption below the image. See the example below - the attribution information does appear blurry in a smaller sized image.

Another handy feature of Photos for Class is that you can embed a search bar on your class blog or school website like the one below.

Clip art and vectors can be useful for students' creations. Rather than just an attractive image, their work might require a map, sign, icon, or flag etc.

Openclipart provides hundreds of thousands of images that can be used freely without attribution.

I couldn't find information about age restrictions on the site, but an email confirmed that this site can be used by students under 13 (it doesn't seem to be totally filtered so I'd recommend supervision).

While Openclipart doesn't present the most modern interface, it's easy enough to search for images.

There is advertising for paid services on this site which would need to be pointed out to students.

Openclipart includes a tool where students can edit clipart. They might enjoy playing around with this feature as you don't need to be signed in to use it.

Images can be downloaded, or you can use the HTML code to embed the clipart like I've done here.

I added Pics4Learning to my list as a late 2018 addition.

I didn't add it originally because I found the images a little restrictive and amateurish, however, some teachers have mentioned they find it useful. It's probably an easy option if you teach students under 13.

Pics4Learning actually contains "copyright-friendly" images meaning the creator maintains the rights to the image but allows teachers and students to use them. The images can only be used for educational purposes and not commercially.

Comparisons

I have created the following table to easily compare the six tools mentioned so you can decide what best meets your needs and your students' needs.

Discussion Points

There are a number of issues that can be discussed in the classroom around the topic of Creative Commons and free images.

Should photographers and artists give away their work for free? Why are artists and musicians more likely to be asked to give away work for free than professionals in other industries?

Why do photographers give away their work to copyright free sites like Unsplash and Pixabay? What are the benefits for them?

Who is hurt by copyright infringement?

Some free sites have the option to either donate to the artist financially, or publicise their work through voluntarily giving credit or sharing to social media. Should we always attribute, even if it's not required?

To encourage a discussion on attribution and Creative Commons with younger students, check out this post and video by Linda Yollis and her third grade students. You might like to try the experiment they conducted yourself.

Safety Concerns

All of the sites I've reviewed, apart from Photos for Class and Pics4Learning, are not designed for children. Not surprisingly, some inappropriate content can be found on these sites when you search for it (especially Pixabay and Pexels it seems, although Pixabay does have a SafeSearch option).

While I don't think this is a reason to ban these sites for older students, it's certainly something to be aware of. Using these resources would just provide an avenue for discussing appropriate online behaviours in an authentic way.

Printables

To make life easier in your classrom, I have created some free printables which I can email to you. You'll be able to print them off as handouts, embed them on your blog, or display them as posters.

1. Task Card for Students Under 13

This document walks your younger students step-by-step through the process of finding and downloading an image on Photos for Class and Openclipart.

Remember, younger students could try Pics4Learning too but it's not the most comprehensive site.

2. Poster for Older Students and Teachers

This document references the five sites that are most useful for teachers and older students.

3. Summary of Options For Finding Images

This poster reminds students of the 5 main ways they can find images for their digital work.

Digital Fluencies

Most students and teachers regularly need images to enhance their digital work. I believe a clear and simple workflow is required for this process.

The skill of legally and efficiently obtaining images is something students need to be fluent in, otherwise, time and focus can be taken away from learning goals.

If students or teachers see the process as too arduous, they often default back to using a picture from Google Images. Not a good idea.

A little time invested in getting used to sourcing free images can really pay off!

Final Thoughts

To gain more of an understanding of Creative Commons and copyright beyond images, check out this post by Sue Waters and Ronnie Burt.

It's important to note that I still think it's a worthwhile skill to teach students about the full range of Creative Commons licenses and attribution, however, sometimes a shortcut is needed to save time and improve workflows. Public domain, royalty free, and Creative Commons Zero images are a better shortcut than using an image that's protected by copyright.
How do you or your students find images for your work? Do you know of any other useful websites? Please leave a comment and share any tips!

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A Simple Guide To Free Images, Copyright, And Creative Commons For Students And Teachers

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This guide walks you through the process of easily and ethically finding copyright free quality images for students and teachers. There are many sites with royalty free images and Creative Commons Zero photos for educators to use in the classroom. Get a free eBook to learn more about copyright, Creative Commons, and free images.

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Collection of resources for finding and learning about proper use of copyright

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Find images and more.... always check and abide by the license on each file you download-they are often not the same, so read each license carefully .

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Underestand how to use and attribute common sources of media

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Creative Commons gives creators a simple, standardized way to selectively license copyright permissions to their creative work.

Contents

License Types

Creative Commons offers creators a wide range of licensing terms. Some are very permissive, and others are restrictive. The following are the primary types of licenses Creative Commons offers:

CC0

Creative Commons Zero attempts to commit the work to the public domain, without the formal procedures required for such commitment. The creator has reserved no rights in the work. A third party may copy, distribute, display/perform, sell, and create derivative works of the original creation.

PLEASE NOTE: Works committed to the public domain via CC0, do NOT require an attribution of any kind. Any work in the public domain may be used without attribution.

CC BY

For the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license terms, one of the major restrictions on the use of the work is that it must be attributed to the original author whenever copied, distributed, displayed/performed, sold, or made a part of a derivative work. Best practices for crafting CC attributions include captioning an image or ascribing another type of work with the title of the work as a link back to the original web site, the name of the creator, and a linked name of the license term abbreviation. An example would be:

Captions usually appear directly below or above the image.

CC BY-SA

The first major restriction of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license terms is to include attribution to the original author, just as above with the CC BY terms. The second restriction is that whenever a derivative work is created, such as when someone remixes, tweaks, or builds upon the original author's work, the person who modifies the original work must license their new creation under the identical terms. This gets complicated when combining works that are unlicensed and licensed under different Creative Commons terms. Fortunately, guidance on how to combine and remix diversely licensed works can be found at the Creative Commons FAQ page.

Whenever you need to use a CC BY-SA licensed work, such as an image, it is important to include the following attribution line directly below the work as a caption. The only things that should be changed to the line are the title of the work in quotes (with accompanying link), the author's name, and the version of the CC BY-SA terms, where applicable:

The above image, "Inspiration" by Patrick Verstappen, is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0. All other content herein is licensed and copyright under different terms and by different parties.

CC BY-ND

The Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives (CC BY-ND) license terms carry the same attribution requirement as the CC BY terms, plus the additional restriction against the creation of derivative works. Derivative works are modified versions or "new" versions of the creative work. A derivative work can be created through dramatic changes, or subtle ones, such as cropping, color corrections, or the addition/removal of elements of the work. The only permissible methods of modification are: (a) conversion of format, such as from a JPG to a PNG, or a DOC to a PDF; and (b) resizing of the image. As such, if you use a work licensed under these terms, you must not modify it in any other way beside these two mentioned here.

CC BY-NC

The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license terms carry the same attribution requirement as the CC BY terms, plus the additional restriction against the use of the work for "commercial advantage or monetary compensation." Since this institution is a non-profit, accredited institution of higher education, our uses should qualify as NonCommercial.

All Other Licenses

All other Creative Commons licenses are a combination of the above sets of terms. As of 11/8/2019, UNT representatives are permitted to utilize works in their courses under any of the above license terms, or any combination thereof.

Common Sources of Creative Commons Media

The three most common sources of CC media are Flickr.com, the Wikimedia Commons, and TED talks. Below are guides to quickly finding the information you need to write your own attribution caption.

Flickr.com

To locate CC attribution information in Flickr, when viewing the image, you will find the photographer/author of the image just below the image on the left. Underneath that will be the title of the work, and on the far right just below the image you will see text that either says "All Rights Reserved" or "Some Rights Reserved." If it says "All Rights Reserved" then you may not use it. It is not licensed under the Creative Commons. However, if it states "Some Rights Reserved," click those words and your browser will open a page on the Creative Commons web site with the license version. The example screen capture of Flickr below shows the locations of each of these pieces of information:

I also does not hurt to link back to a photographer's work, even when it is not required, as a matter of academic best practice and good will.

Wikipedia & Wikimedia Commons

Likewise, all the information you require for a Creative Commons attribution caption can be found just below the image on Wikimedia Commons. The title, followed by the photographer/author, are just below the photo on the left, and the Creative Commons license type and version are just below the image on the right. The screen capture image below shows their exact location.

To form your own caption, copy the example above under CC BY. Replace the title with your image's title, then replace the photographer/author's name, and then, if necessary, replace the CC type and version with the appropriate one listed for the source image. And for good measure, link the title back to the original web page, and the license to the license page.

TED Talk Attribution Caption

All TED and TEDx talks are licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license terms. Any time a TED or TEDx talk is embedded in a UNT page, please include a Creative Commons attribution caption, regardless of whether the TED talk is in YouTube or directly on the TED.com web site. However, if you link out to a TED video, no caption is needed. A good example for the format for a TED talk attribution caption would be:

Additional Reading

Research in-depth information from other external sources in Resources.

Search these multiple sources to Locate Usable Work - text, images, videos, and audio.

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Center for Learning, Experimentation, Application, and Research

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Creative Commons gives creators a simple, standardized way to selectively license copyright permissions to their creative work. Creative Commons offers creators a wide range of licensing terms. Some are very permissive, and others are restrictive.

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Understanding Fair Use in the Digital Age

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Understanding Fair Use in the Digital Age

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Printable document outlining permitted uses of copyrighted material

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Video explaing fair use and copyright in education

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Education Fair Use Defense and Copyright Law

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How Music, Licensing, Copyrights, and Publishing Work Together

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How Music, Licensing, Copyrights, and Publishing Work Together

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Guide to music copyright

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How Music Licensing, Copyrights, and Publishing Work Together | MusicMeetFans.Com

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Music Licensing is a topic that all music creators should have a working understanding of. So here is the guide you will not find anywhere else.

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Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act

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Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act

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Explanation and discussion of the TEACH Act

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education and copyright harmonization (teach) act

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Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization (TEACH) Act

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The Technology, Education and Copyright Harmonization ("TEACH") Act updates sections 110(2) and 112 of the Copyright Act to allow the same activities to take place using digital delivery mechanisms that were permitted under the policy balance that was struck by Congress when the law was enacted in 1976, while introducing safeguards to minimize the additional risks to copyright owners that are inherent in exploiting works in a digital format.

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4.5 million+ Stunning Free Images to Use Anywhere - Pixabay - Pixabay

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Find your perfect royalty-free image or video to download and use. ✓ Royalty-free ✓ No attribution required ✓ High quality images.

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Join a global community working to strengthen the Commons

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Safe For YouTube
& Other Platforms

Our Royalty Free Music is copyright safe, cleared and ready to use for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch, Vimeo, and most Platforms: Your videos are cleared forever, even if you close your membership or account.

Use Forever

All Pay-per-Track and All Access subscription plans get you a perpetual license valid forever. You want to cancel your membership?
Not a problem! All your projects using our royalty free music are cleared forever!

We use cookies for analytics, and to offer you a better browsing experience.

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Music for Video Creators - Hear the Difference

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Hear the difference! Top royalty free music freshly composed by independent artists. Use our royalty free music for YouTube videos, social media, films,...

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Free Copyright Free Music for YouTube Videos | Thematic

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Get free copyright-free music instantly matched to your videos with Thematic. Curated & royalty free music for YouTube videos for free.

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20's / 30's / 40's / Cabaret 50's / 60's / 70's / Retro Acoustic Guitar Action / Thriller Ambient Chill Americana / Blues Big Beat / Techno Bossa / Brazilian Christmas / Holiday Comedy / Fun / Kids Corporate / Positive Country Music Dance / House / Club Drama / Tension Dramedy / Lifestyle Dubstep / DnB / Uptempo Electro / Breakbeat Fantasy / Mystery Film Scores / Trailer Music Funky / Groovy Hard Rock / Heavy Metal Hip Hop / Trip Hop Horror / Suspense India / Bollywood Indie Rock / Punk / Surf Irish / Celtic Island / Tropical Jazz / Modern Jazz / Traditional Laid Back / Downtempo Latin / Salsa Logos / Stingers Middle East / Africa Music Loops New Age / Meditation News / Technology Orchestral Music Orient / Asia Percussion / Drums Piano Music Pop Music / Uplifting Progressive Rock Reggae / Ska RnB / Urban Romantic / Sentimental Sci-fi Music Soundscape / Atmosphere Travel / Documentary Unique / Different Music Violin / Fiddle Vocal Music w/lyrics World - Europe

You can download and use these free music loops and full length music clips in any commercial multimedia project but you cannot:
* re-sell individually or as a collection or as a ringtone
* post on a website for download as we are doing here
* mix into your own music and then redistribute it as your own.

You may use these music loops in a Youtube video, Flash animation or in any other commercial multimedia presentation including TV and Film.

In return for the use of these free royalty free music loops we only ask that you please give Partners In Rhyme a link on your website or blog, a credit in your Youtube video, or just a nice email saying "Thanks!".

Free Royalty Free Music Loops

We have a nice selection of free royalty free music here for you to download and use in your Youtube videos and commercial projects completely free of charge and without every having to pay royalties. The music is created and owned by Partners In Rhyme and is Youtube-safe. This music will not trigger any third party copyright notices when you use the music loops in your Youtube video.
These are presented here in WAV format, for those of you wondering why we don't offer MP3s it because these are loops, you can lay them end to end in your timeline to create a continuous flow of music. MP3 files will not loop properly due to the conversion process and would render the music loops useless as loops.
After previewing the music to download all you need to do is right-click/control-click on the title of the track and from the pop-up window that shows up you choose 'save file as' or 'save target as' or 'save link as' or whatever option looks the most obvious to download a file to your computer and you're done.

And here is something that we have recently decided to add to our free music loops page, a license!
We know that many of you video producers are now having issues with Youtube and sometimes need to prove that you have the right to use the music that you have added to your video. Well, no problem. Here is a signed authorization that you can send to any Youtube reviewer and it should do the trick in getting your monetization unblocked.
Click on the link below to review and download your authorization to use this music
PartnersInRhyme_Authorization.pdf
Here's a zipped version if you can't figure out how to save the pdf once you see it in your browser
PartnersInRhyme_Authorization.pdf.zip

Have fun!

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20's / 30's / 40's / Cabaret 50's / 60's / 70's / Retro Acoustic Guitar Action / Thriller Ambient Chill Americana / Blues Big Beat / Techno Bossa / Brazilian Christmas / Holiday Comedy / Fun / Kids Corporate / Positive Country Music Dance / House / Club Drama

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dig.ccMixter Music discovery site operated by ArtisTech Media ... founded by Creative Commons.

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Top free pics this week

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Most everything you need to get started - photos, suppliers, and more

Frequently asked questions

What is Burst?

Burst is a free stock photo platform that is powered by Shopify. Our image library includes thousands of high-resolution, royalty-free images that were shot by our global community of photographers. We built Burst to provide designers, developers, bloggers and entrepreneurs with access to beautiful free stock photography. You can use our pictures for just about anything - your website, blog or online store, school projects, Instagram ads, facebook posts, desktop backgrounds, client work and more. All our photos are free for commercial use with no attribution required; you can read more about this on our license page.

How do I download free photos?

When you hover over or click on an image, you will see "High Resolution" and "Low Resolution" download options. "Low Res" images are great for small web graphics, where file sizes need to be very compressed. "High Res" images are better for presentations, websites, online stores, and anywhere else where quality matters most.

Can I edit, crop or resize Burst photos?

Yes, you're welcome to crop, resize, add text and filters, or otherwise modify our stock photos as you see fit. If you don't have Photoshop, there are lots of free or low cost online graphics editors that you can use instead. Feel free to add your logo or brand to our images to make them your own.

Can I use these pictures for another online store platform?

Yes! We believe in making commerce better for everyone, so these stock photos are free to use on any online store platform or ecommerce marketplace. Although they were specifically created and curated with Shopify stores in mind, it's really up to you how you want to use them.

Do I need to credit the site or photographer?

Our photographers appreciate getting credit for their work because it helps share their photography with more people, so we'd encourage you to do so whenever possible. You can give credit by linking back to the original photo page or the photographer's Burst profile (e.g. "Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst"). We realize it's not always possible to provide attribution, so it is not mandatory under our image license.

Are these photos free for commercial use?

Yes! In fact, we'd highly encourage it, as many of our collections were created with entrepreneurs in mind. You can use these free photos on your online store, product packaging, or anywhere else you'd like. You can even use these pics to create t-shirts, mugs, or other products.

Can I use these photographs for offline marketing campaigns?

Of course. We'd be honored to have you feature our free stock photos on a billboard, flyer, menu or catalog.

I'd like to contribute photos. What types of images should I submit?

We're looking for high-resolution, professional images that can be used by designers, developers, bloggers and entrepreneurs. Our users are always eager for more pictures of animals, nature photos, textured shots and background images. If you think it's a compelling photograph, please send it our way.

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20,000+ Free Stock Photos and Royalty-Free Images

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Browse thousands of beautiful copyright-free images. All our pictures are free to download for personal and commercial use, no attribution required.

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Also includes some videos

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Free Images & Pictures. Free Photos, Clipart, Vectors, Icons, PSD & Graphic Design resources! ✓ Free & Royalty Free Images [HD] No Copyright

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Discover Canva’s beautiful photos and images for your every day design needs. Choose from millions of highly curated free and premium stock photos.

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Free high resolution photography - Life of Pix

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Free high resolution photography. Share and download images freely. Search for pictures by color or format. Photographers, get an account now !

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Copyright & Creativity | K-12 Teaching Resources on Copyright and Fair Use

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Copyright and Creativity is a nonprofit project offering a full suite of free K-12 resources for teaching copyright and fair use and more. C&C resources are free and ready-to-use: in-class lesson plans, plug-n-play slides, and videos. Resources were developed on a nonprofit basis with input from independent educators, academic copyright experts, and online civil liberties advocates.

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nappy is a website dedicated to providing free, beautiful, high-res photography of black and brown people to creatives, startups, brands, and agencies. nappy makes it easy for companies to be purposeful about representation in their designs, presentations, and advertisements.

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Creativity is freedom. We're supporting yours with free stock photos

Sketch and refine your designs with our wide selection of free commercial stock photos provided by our global contributors. Browse through our curated selection and start designing right away, at no cost.

Download free high-resolution stock images

Bring your website or product design to life with free stock images from any category you need - from business to travel, technology, people, or nature. We've also got you covered with over 180,000 free Public Domain images to suit your social media content, your blog posts, or covers. Boost your creativity with a little help from our community and turn your ideas into astounding designs.

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Free Stock Photos & Images - Royalty-Free Images by Dreamstime

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Download from the largest collection of royalty-free and Creative Commons CC0 stock photos and high quality free images. Hundreds of free photos added daily.

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The Ultimate Guide to Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use

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The Ultimate Guide to Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use

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It has never been easier to publish online or consume digital content. This comes with many advantages and can make teaching and learning so much more targeted and impactful. Living in a digital world also brings up many questions - one issue that is very important to understand is copyright.

Whether you're an educator, student, or blogger, copyright is a topic that is often overlooked as it can be confusing or just not considered important.

Unfortunately, there are also a lot of myths about copyright circulating amongst the education community. Maybe you've heard that you can use any images or texts you find online if you're using them for education? Or perhaps you've heard that you can use any songs in your videos as long as you use less than 30 seconds? Yep, both not true.

Copyright is important for all teachers, students, and bloggers to know about. And it doesn't have to be as complicated as you think. We're here to break down the basics of copyright and other related topics like fair use, public domain, and Creative Commons.

There's a lot to learn in this post so remember to bookmark it and use the menu below to navigate.

Let's get started with the basics.

Let's begin with the 5 main rules you need to remember about copyright.

1) Just because you found it online, doesn't mean it's free to use (even if you're a teacher or student).

2) There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3) You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4) If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, make your own material, or purchase an alternative that has the usage rights you're after.

5) Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you're being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

📌 Want a poster for your classroom or staffroom? Download a letter-sized poster of the 5 rules to remember here.

Copyright is a form of legal protection offered to creators by default. That means, in many countries (like the USA and Australia), you don't have to register your work to have it protected by copyright.

Some creators do register their work with the U.S. Copyright Office (or the equivalent in their own country). Usually, this is to provide strong evidence to a court that the creator is the copyright holder if there is ever an infringement case. You don't need to have registered your work with the Copyright Office in order to pursue a copyright infringement case.

It's a myth that you have to display a copyright symbol © to protect your work.
Can Others Use Your Copyrighted Work?
If you're a copyright owner, someone else can't copy your work without your permission. They also can't perform the work, distribute copies of the work, display the work publicly, or create derivatives.

If someone does use work that's protected by copyright without permission, that's called copyright infringement. We'll cover this later.
Who Owns The Copyright?
Usually, the creator of a work is the copyright owner but the copyright can also be sold, traded, or inherited.
What Does Copyright Cover?
Copyright covers both published and unpublished works that are tangible in format. So, all tangible original work is protected by copyright whether it's a blog post, music, artwork, photo, play, poem, novel, dance choreography, movie, software, architecture, or more.

Copyright does not protect works that are not tangible, like facts or ideas. Copyright only protects the tangible expression of your ideas. So you might have a great idea for a blog post about teaching 5th grade math but unless you actually write the post, you can't protect the idea that's floating around in your head. And you can't stop others from writing about the same idea.

You can read more about the basics of copyright on the U.S. Copyright Office website (or on your own country's official site). There are some variations between countries.

So now you understand that most of the work you're accessing online or in books is going to be protected by copyright (images, text, videos, music, and more). This means you can't necessarily use these materials freely on your class blog, website, or with your students in your classroom.

"But fair use applies here doesn't it", I hear you ask? Because you're using images, text, videos, or music for educational purposes, that's okay, right? Teachers and students don't have to worry?

Not necessarily.

The more you dig in to the topic of fair use, the more you come to realize it is a gray area.

As the U.S. Copyright Office explains, The Classroom Use Exemption 17 U.S.C. §110(1) allows you to use copyrighted material when you meet certain criteria.

If you're teaching online or wanting to hand out copies of work, then you may not be covered by this exemption. Furthermore, these fair use laws are specific to the U.S. so if you're in another country, you may not be covered. Some countries don't have a fair use law or they may be more specific or broad than the U.S.

For example, in Australia, there is " Fair Dealing " which is an exception to copyright infringement that's a little more specific than in the U.S. You may be able to use portions of copyright material without permission for the purpose of:

research or study

criticism or review

parody or satire

reporting news, or

enabling a person with a disability to access the material

Overall, fair use isn't as simple as it seems, right? Instead of trying to find loopholes with fair use, a better approach is to look for materials that you can use freely.

The best place to start is with public domain or Creative Commons materials. So let's dig into that.

In general, in the U.S., copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years after the author's death.

What happens to work after the copyright expires? Well, it becomes part of the public domain. Works can also enter the public domain if they are factual (e.g. charts or calendars), they are published before a certain date, or a creator has assigned their work to the public domain.

When something is in the public domain it means the work is owned by the public and you don't have to get permission to use it. This is great for educators looking for materials they can freely use with their students.

Example Public Domain Resources

There are many places online where you can find books, images, audio, and videos that are in the public domain.

Some popular choices for public domain materials include:

Sometimes creators (copyright holders) are happy for others to use their work, as long as they meet certain conditions.

A creator can place a Creative Commons license on their work which describes the terms of using, modifying, and sharing the works. A simple license removes the hassle of others having to ask the creator for permission.

Creative Commons is an international organization that made this system possible. The mission of the Creative Commons organization is clear,

By helping people and organizations share knowledge and creativity, we aim to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world.

If a creator decides to attach a Creative Commons license to their work, there are six Creative Commons licenses to choose from.

I have written a post on my own blog about copyright and Creative Commons that includes a poster to simplify the licenses.

The poster includes a Creative Commons license so you're welcome to use the poster in your classroom or share it with your colleagues (a poster about Creative Commons licenses that includes a Creative Commons license - meta, right?). There is a PDF version of the poster on my blog.

👉🏽 If you'd like to learn more about Creative Commons licenses, the video below by McLaughlin Library is a good place to start. You can learn more about Creative Commons Licenses on the official website of the organization as well.

If you need images for your blog, website, videos, or other projects, Creative Commons images are a good choice. As long as you're using the image according to the license with attribution, you won't be infringing copyright.

If you're looking for images that have a Creative Commons license, there are an increasing number of options out there. We'll show you some of the more popular options, but first, it's important to understand attribution.

All Creative Commons resources require attribution unless they're licensed with the least restrictive Creative Commons Zero license. That means no attribution is required and you can use the resource however you like.

Let's take a look at how to attribute Creative Commons images. The same instructions apply to other works (text, videos, etc.).

How To Attribute Creative Commons Images

When you use a resource with a Creative Commons license, you have to attribute it in a particular way. Attributing means sharing the details of the work and giving credit.

The acronym TASL can help us remember what to include.

Title of the image or material (don't worry if there is no title)

Author or creator of the image/material

Source of the image/material. Where is it from? Include a link if possible so others can find it

License - include which of the six Creative Commons licenses applies to the work

Here's a photo I found on Wikimedia Commons of a bridge in Western Australia. You can see I included the attribution below the image.

By Dietmar Rabich, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=84138882

If you use images from Wikimedia Commons, getting the attribution information is easy. As you go to download the image, you're prompted to copy the attribution information.

You can copy the attribution information either in plain text format (as in caption above), or as HTML as shown below.

If you insert HTML into your blog post, it'll become hyperlinked. Learn more about inserting custom HTML in Edublogs/CampusPress/WordPress block editor here.

👉🏽 If you'd like to learn more about attribution and explore some examples of ideal, acceptable, and unacceptable attributions, check out this page on the Creative Commons wiki. There's also a handy PDF about attribution on the Australian Creative Commons website.

Now you know the basics of attribution. Let's take a look at where you can find images and music that have a Creative Commons license. We'll begin with images that don't require attribution.

Creative Commons Zero Images
(No Attribution Required)
There are a number of websites where you can find images that are free to use without attribution (Creative Commons Zero).

I've written a post on my blog about the best websites to find Creative Commons images that either don't require attribution or the attribution is included within the image like the example below from Photos For Class:

The sites reviewed in my post and the summary diagram below are:

* Photos For Class currently has fewer options than it used to. The team has told us they aim to improve this in mid-2020. 🤞🏽

Here's a summary poster that you're free to use in your own teaching.

The one issue that a lot of educators overlook is that a lot of these free image sites are age-restricted. So if you teach younger students, many sites are not going to be suitable.

Another thing to consider is that even though the images from these sites don't need to be attributed (or they include the attribution information within the image) it's still a good idea to teach students about copyright, Creative Commons, and attribution. As producers and consumers on the web, these are really vital understandings for students and all internet users. Just remember, even if attribution isn't required, it's always appreciated by the creator.

Creative Commons Images That Require Attribution

Apart from the sites listed above with images that don't require attribution, there are other places to find images with one of the six Creative Commons licenses that do require attribution.
Creative Commons Search Engine
The first place you might want to look is the search engine on the official Creative Commons website. This is an excellent tool that was updated in 2019. It allows you to search through millions of CC images from more than 20 different sites.

When using the search engine, you can easily filter the search results - for example, you can filter by file type, use, or license.

There's also a Creative Commons search browser extension that allows you to look for Creative Commons images on the go.

Wikimedia Commons
We already mentioned Wikimedia Commons above in the section about attribution. Wikimedia Commons has a large collection of images, audio, and videos that are free to use. Most require attribution.

Wikimedia Commons collections are included in the Creative Commons search engine so that tool really is a one-stop shop.
Search For Creative Commons Images On Google
Sadly, it is common practice for many teachers, students, and bloggers to take images straight from Google. Most images on Google are protected by copyright and using these images is illegal and unethical.

You may know that you can do an advanced search on Google to find Creative Commons images, although it does require a few steps. First, you need to filter your search results to find images that can be reused.

This video from Jurupa School District explains how to do that.

Then the next step, that is not shown in the video, is you have to click through to the site the image is from, look for the Creative Commons license, and attribute your image correctly.

As we saw above, using the Creative Commons search engine or Wikimedia Commons makes it really simple to attribute your chosen image. All you really have to do is copy/paste. Using Google search doesn't make it easy to attribute Creative Commons images. So this is not the way we'd recommend finding Creative Commons images online.

No doubt there have been many times when you want to use music on your blog, in your content, or in class. When you're creating a video it can be extremely tempting to use popular music that reflects the mood and emotion of the footage. Or maybe you want students to play popular music at a performance or public event.

As you probably know, most music is protected by copyright. It doesn't matter if you paid for a song or not, it's still protected by copyright. It doesn't matter if you're only using 30 seconds or less of a song, it's still protected by copyright.

Let's take a look at some specific examples of music and copyright.

Using Music In Projects Like Videos

Normally, you can't just use any music you like in your projects or videos.

However, in many countries, there are exceptions. For example, in the U.S. and Australia, you are allowed to copy music to add to a video if:

a) it's for educational purposes and
b) you're not sharing your video publicly (or selling it!)

So, if you make a video with music that's protected by copyright, it's not okay to publish this on a public blog, social media, YouTube, and so on. And you couldn't show your video at a public event. However, it's okay if the video is just being shown privately to teachers, students, and families at home/school.

It's also important to note that background music is not considered "educational use".

Paying For Music And Streaming

There are popular sites and apps where you can pay to download or stream music legally - for example, Apple Music, Google Play Music, and Spotify.

You can listen to your downloaded music yourself, but can't upload the music to your blog or to a video or other project you're working on.

It's fine to stream music videos on sites like YouTube too but it's not usually legal to download the audio from a YouTube video as explained in this article.

Also, streaming music is meant for personal use - not for a public broadcast.

As Spotify says,

...it's not possible to use Spotify in public places (such as bars, restaurants, stores, schools, etc.). You may only make personal, non-commercial, entertainment use of the content.

Most streaming services are similar.

Embedding Music Videos

Embedding a music video from a site like YouTube or Vimeo into your blog is usually allowed.

As Richard Byrne says,

If the host provides an embed and you embed it using their code according to their rules (usually that means not trying to hide branding), you can embed it without violating copyright.

You can also link to music files or videos that are publicly available on the web.

Using Purchased CDs

Some people still listen to music by buying a CD or borrowing one from the library, although, of course, digital music is becoming a lot more popular than CDs in many parts of the world.

Again, you can't copy the music from a CD and use it for another public project (e.g. upload it to your blog or add it to a public video). It doesn't matter if you have purchased the CD legitimately.

👉🏽 If you'd like to learn more about using music in education for other purposes including school concerts and online learning, check out this fact sheet from the National Association of Music Education.

Creative Commons Or Copyright Free Music

Even though most music out there is protected by copyright, there are many places online to find Creative Commons or other copyright free music options.

You might first like to check if your district has any subscriptions you can make the most of. For example, Soundzabound.

If this isn't an option, there are lots of other sources of free music online.

Three options for free music and audio are:

Let's take a look at how these three sites work.

Dig CC Mixter

Dig CC Mixter offers thousands of hours of free music.

The music on this site has different Creative Commons licenses so you need to check whether you need to attribute the music or not.

Educational Blogger Richard Byrne explains in a video how to use Dig CC Mixter and filter by license.

YouTube Audio Library

YouTube has a great library of music you can use. Visit the Audio Library on YouTube to browse the selections.

If you click on Attribution, you can filter your results to find music that does or doesn't require attribution.

You can preview the music to see what it sounds like and download the music you want to use.

Here's an example called Sunshine in my Heart by Jingle Punks.

BBC Sound Effects

During 2018, the BBC made over 16,000 sound effects available to use. These sound effects are not actually Creative Commons - they're protected by copyright but the BBC gives permission for the sound effects be used for personal, educational, or research purposes.

You can browse by category to find the sort of sound effect you're after for your project.

You should put a link in your project or blog post to say that your sound effects are from the BBC and link to their site.

Here is an example of a sound clip. This is the sound of the surf at Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia.

Surf - Bondi Beach, bbc.co.uk, copyright 2020

Where would we be without all the awesome video content we now have at our fingertips on the web? In the education world, extensive video libraries like YouTube are becoming priceless.

Video copyright can be complicated as video can draw together multiple elements - video footage, images, music, sound effects, and so on. When using, sharing, or creating video, you need to make sure all of these elements are not protected by copyright.

Can You Link Or Embed Videos?

You are free to embed any video from sites like YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube, TedED etc. on your blog or website as long as it gives you the embed option. It's a good idea to add a link to the video as well.

Linking or embedding from YouTube or other sites on the web is not considered copying. Just make sure the videos aren't violating copyright. If they are, they'll probably be taken down by the site eventually but some content gets through.

Can You Download Videos From Sites Like YouTube?

While linking and embedding videos is okay, you shouldn't download videos from YouTube. Sometimes this is tempting for teachers especially if they have unreliable internet connectivity, they're worried about a video being removed in future, or they want to add a video to a learning management system. However, downloading videos raises many legal questions and generally violates copyright.

Additionally, you can't necessarily use parts of videos from YouTube (or other sources) to make mashups or remixes. If you want to cut or remix videos, it is better to use Creative Commons content, public domain content, or request permission from the copyright holder.

Uploading Your Own Videos To YouTube

If you want to upload your videos to a site like YouTube remember to respect copyright. You should only upload videos that you made or that you have permission to upload. Make sure there aren't copyrighted elements (e.g. music or images) in your videos. Of course, get permission from your school or district if these videos are being used professionally.

Educators should be especially careful about permission if using footage of students. Some teachers use the blurring tools available in YouTube to blur student faces and identifying objects. Richard Byrne shares a demonstration of how to do this on his website.

👉🏽 If you're a creator and would like to learn more about videos and copyright, YouTube has a useful playlist of eight videos on their YouTube Creators channel.

Showing Videos To Students

Teachers can show videos in class for educational reasons, such as videos legally uploaded to YouTube (however, some districts don't allow YouTube to be used in schools).

If you have a legitimate copy of an offline video (e.g. DVD), you're allowed to use this in class for face-to-face teaching as long as it's for educational purposes (not for entertainment or a reward).

Remember, this would be in line with the U.S. fair use policies we described above, so check your own country's guidelines if in doubt. If you're in Australia, a useful website for all things copyright is https://www.smartcopying.edu.au

Say you've purchased a textbook or other teaching materials. You can obviously use these materials in class and you might be able to make photocopies, however, in most cases you can't upload purchased curriculum or books to a public site. That means don't put scans, photos, or PDFs of textbooks, worksheets, posters, picture books, novels, or other learning materials on your public blog or website.

If in doubt, seek guidance from the company you purchased the curriculum materials from about reuse.

Marketplaces Like Teachers Pay Teachers

Not so long ago, we were all purchasing our curriculum materials from professional organizations. Now anyone can be a creator and with the rise of sites like Teachers Pay Teachers, new copyright questions have arisen. As Education Week has pointed out, copyright infringement is rife on this popular marketplace.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you're uploading to a site like Teachers Pay Teachers you need to make sure you have permission to use all your elements including fonts and images.

If you're downloading resources from Teachers Pay Teachers, you need to seek clarification about how these can be used. And also keep an eye out for resources that look like they could be violating copyright before you use them (e.g. copies of a published textbook). There is limited vetting of copyright materials on Teachers Pay Teachers. As a savvy internet user, we all need to have an awareness of the larger copyright traps that are out there.

Link To Curriculum Resources

Linking may be a useful alternative to copying curriculum materials. If third-party text, articles, or other content is available on the web, teachers or students could include a link to the content on their blog or website.

Like embedding, linking is not a copyright activity because you're not "copying" the content. You're just providing a path to the original location that the readers can access themselves.

Creative Commons Textbooks And Curriculum

Another option to avoid copyright violations is to use curriculum materials that have Creative Commons licenses. One example is OpenStax. You can browse to find textbooks for a range of topics and the materials are free to use however you see fit.

You'll find some more open textbooks and course materials listed on this Open Washington page.

We know that most images, text, music, and other content are protected by copyright by default. Using work protected by copyright without permission is called copyright infringement. This is unethical and illegal. "Using" the work might involve reproducing, displaying, distributing, performing, or making your own derivatives.

But I Won't Be Caught...

If only that were true.

Google makes it incredibly easy for companies and content creators to seek out those posting their work on the web. In fact, most large companies now aggressively patrol the internet looking for copyright infringement.

Sadly, we are also noticing more and more "law firms" and organizations out there looking for copyrighted content as a way of generating business. They then contact the copyright holder offering their services to get the content removed (for a fee of course). It is a ruthless (and apparently profitable) practice.

Another issue that is important to be aware of involves Creative Commons Zero sites. There have been cases where people have used images from free image sites like Unsplash and then were hit with a copyright infringement case. Sometimes people put images up on these sites in order to sue. They leave the images up on the site until they are downloaded multiple times and then remove them. This is a dark side of Creative Commons Zero that's important to be aware of.

What If I Am Caught?

In many countries, copyright infringement brings hefty penalties including fines of hundreds of thousands of dollars and imprisonment, depending on the situation.

Of course, a good offense is your best defense. Check your blogs and class websites for any potentially offending material. Has anyone uploaded images straight from other websites or Google? Are there are educational materials (e.g. copies of textbooks) that shouldn't be there? Has copyrighted music been used publicly? If you find anything, just remove it.

The law requires copyright holders to give you (and the host of your site, such as Edublogs, WordPress, etc.) an official notification. Take these seriously and act quickly to remove what they want if you are in the wrong. That should be the end of it.

Here at Edublogs and CampusPress, we're contacted about copyrighted materials regularly. These are mostly images from Google, curriculum documents, or PDFs (e.g. textbooks or sheet music), or music files.

We were once notified about a teacher with a blog on Edublogs that had a harmless world map image on his blog that he had presumably found using Google image search. When we contacted him telling him why we had removed the image, he asked if he and his students could write an apology letter to the copyright holder.

It was excellent - turning what could be a bit of an embarrassing mistake into a teachable moment for his students. Now this teacher had a good reason to discuss copyright and Creative Commons with his students.

Even if you haven't done anything wrong, having a space to publish online like a blog or website is one of the best ways students can learn about copyright and Creative Commons.

Whether you're a teacher, a student, or a regular blogger, when you're publishing online you must do your best to be a responsible digital citizen. This means respecting others' work and respecting copyright.

Here are three key things to remember when publishing online to be a legal and ethical digital citizen:

1) Steer Clear Of Google Images

Don't copy images off Google or other websites. Even if you include an attribution it is still illegal and unethical.

If you like an image and don't know where it originally came from, a reverse search might help.

If an image is created by someone that you can contact, you could always ask their permission to use it.

Remember the best bet is to find Creative Commons or public domain images. Otherwise, take/make your own images or purchase some from a stock photography website.

2) Embed Or Link To Audio Or Video Clips

If you're going to include a video or an audio clip, embed the file from the source and include a link as well. Don't download audio or video files as this brings up many questions about copyright.

If you're embedding from a site like YouTube, make sure the content doesn't violate copyright law. YouTube is usually pretty good at cracking down on this but there is some content on there that does violate copyright - e.g. copies of television shows.

3) Never Copy Someone Else's Blog Post

You might find this a little hard to believe but unfortunately people copy posts from other blogs and publish them on their own site all the time. Or they publish the blog post in another format such as a PDF document or slideshow.

And in case you're wondering, copying someone's blog post and then including an attribution does not make this okay.

If you do want to share someone else's blog post on your own blog, consider writing a short description of the post on your blog and then inviting readers to click on a link to read the post themselves. In your own post, you could include some key points about what you agreed or disagreed with. Or maybe you can expand on the topic in a different direction. All this would be perfectly acceptable and no doubt the author would appreciate the interaction.

Hopefully you now know that you definitely can't copy and paste someone else's whole blog post or image, but you can include a quote of some text.

Here are a few points to be aware of that we included in our post on The Edublogger about quotes:

Make it obvious which words are your own, and which words belong to someone else by using quotation marks or block quotes.

Make your quotes brief. There are no universal rules here. Some larger organizations have guidelines around how much you can quote (e.g. Hubspot's rules are 75 words). If you're unsure or think you might be using too much of someone's article, contact them to ask permission. Never copy the whole post.

Always include the person's name, and link to their site, article, or book if you can.

If you're using blockquotes, the attribution could be before the quote, inside it, or below it.

If you shorten a quote, use an ellipsis (...) in place of the missing words.

If you're adding any words or corrections to the quote, use brackets.

Earlier, we looked at the six types of Creative Commons licenses available to creators. If you're publishing online, you're a creator too! And you don't have to be a professional. Maybe you share memes or lesson resources on social media? Perhaps you write blog posts? Maybe you take your own photographs that you share online?

Have you ever considered adding a Creative Commons license to your own original work?

As the Creative Commons organization explains,

When you apply a CC license, you give permission to anyone to use your material for the full duration of applicable copyright and similar rights.

This is therefore a serious decision but an important one. You can contribute to building a collection of art and knowledge that's accessible to anyone in the world. How cool is that! You remain in control by choosing your own license, and people who like your work can use or share it without having to contact you for permission.

Before you choose a Creative Commons license, you need to make sure you are the copyright owner and the work is copyrightable (e.g. in a tangible format).

If you're unsure which license to choose for your own work, there is an interactive tool on the Creative Commons website. This tool suggests a license after you answer a few questions. It also gives you a CC button that you can attach to your work to display your license.

If you would like to display your creative commons license on your blog, the easiest way is to use a text widget in your sidebar.

From your dashboard, go to Appearance > Widgets and select a Text widget to add to your sidebar. Paste the code provided by your Creative Commons license provider in the widget's text box, and click "Save".

Adults aren't the only ones who can add Creative Commons licenses to their work. In many countries, children can too. What an authentic way for students to learn about copyright and sharing online.

Perhaps a whole class or school could make a library of Creative Commons content (e.g. images or music) that can be used freely by the education community? Talk about authentic learning!

If you've made it this far into the guide you will have realized that copyright is a vast and complex topic, however, you don't need to be an expert to understand the basics.

We've made a collection of slides which you're welcome to use in your own classroom or perhaps you'd like to use them as part of your professional development program. Want to make a copy? Scroll down for instructions (don't request access).

Want a copy of the Google Slides presentation? Don't request access, just follow the steps below.

1) Click on this link: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jK-_bTIBa9CZAC-bqKd0PQc7ohG9L47KSdcvfHgIxqw/copy?usp=sharing

2) You will be prompted to make a copy (screenshot below).

3) The Slides will be saved in your Google Drive.

4) You can edit the Google Slides to suit.

Before we conclude, take a moment to reflect back on the rules to remember about copyright.

1. Just because you found it online, doesn't mean it's free to use (even if you're a teacher or student).

2. There are a lot of resources you can use freely including work that has a Creative Commons license or is in the public domain.

3. You have a right as a creator to have your work protected from copying and you can also give your own content a Creative Commons license.

4. If in doubt about using content, ask the creator for permission, find a free alternative, purchase an alternative, or make your own material.

5. Instead of looking for loopholes, consider whether you're being the most responsible and ethical digital citizen you can be.

Do you have any other tips to add about copyright for educators, students, or bloggers? Be sure to leave a comment and let us know. We'd love to hear your suggestions.

For any specific questions regarding your own copyright dilemmas, please consult professional legal advice.

About Us

Edublogs is the oldest and most trusted web publishing platform for students and teachers around the globe. We have helped create and publish more than five million blogs, websites and portfolios since 2005 while providing teacher-friendly, student-safe WordPress solutions at scale.

We offer both cost-efficient and free options, along with site development, hosting, security, plugin and theme support to ensure your digital presence is meeting your goals in a fast-changing digital world.Want to learn more? Contact us to receive more information.

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The Educator's Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

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Copyright is important for all teachers, students, and bloggers to know about and it doesn't have to be as complicated as you think. In our ultimate guide, Dexter the cat helps us break down the basics of copyright, Creative Commons, and fair use....

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Need a stunning video clip but don't have the time or resources to shoot it yourself? Discover free video clips for website backgrounds, music videos, promo videos, ads and more. No attribution required.

Combine your content with high-quality, free video clips from our growing library. Unlimited downloads across categories such as free coffee videos, free drone videos, stunning nature clips and much more.

These videos are available for free and are ready to be used as b-roll footage to enhance your video production skills, or to lift the success of your next social media post.

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Download the Best Free Stock Videos and Footage | Mixkit

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Browse our library of extraordinary free stock footage and motion clips for every occasion. All HD Video Clips are completely free to download and use anywhere.

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Stock footage & motion graphics for everyone.

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Download millions of free and premium stock footage and motion graphics instantly.

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Free Stock Video Footage HD 4K Download Royalty-Free Clips

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Download free stock video footage with over 300,000 video clips in 4K and HD. We also offer a wide selection of music and sound effect files with over 180,000 clips available. Click here to download royalty-free licensing videos, motion graphics, music and sound effects from Videvo today.

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all clips you find in this group I give away for free use in your productions! I hope you find useful stuff in here. feedback & tipjar welcome :-)

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Created for high school students

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Copyright And Fair Use Lesson Plans | Media Education Lab

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These lessons engage advanced high school and college learners in understanding the role of copyright and fair use to support innovation. Created by Renee Hobbs, Sandra Braman and Katie Donnelly, these lesson plans help learners understand the purpose of copyright, the doctrine of fair use, the Codes of Best Practices, and the future of copyright law.

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PBS Newshour Copyright & Fair Use Lesson

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PBS Newshour Copyright & Fair Use Lesson

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Subjects: Journalism, Language Arts, Social Studies

Estimated Time: One 25-minute class period

Grade Level: Middle and High School

Overview: In developing video packages for the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs program, your students may want to incorporate copyrighted materials, including photographs, music, film or video clips.

To help them decide when and how to use copyrighted materials as part of creative work for Student Reporting Labs, it's important to have a good understanding of copyright and fair use.

Materials: Printouts of Worksheet 1.4, poster board or paper and markers
Teachers, for your own background information, this Common Sense/ Teaching Channel video shows a teacher teaching a lesson on . You may choose to show it to your students as a way to foster conversation.
Warm-Up Activity
Downloading Dangers

Ask students to put their heads down on their desks and close their eyes. With their eyes still closed ask students to raise their hands if they have ever downloaded a book, music, pictures or music illegally. Make sure to tell them that they are only using this information for the purpose of today's lesson and the results will not leave the classroom. Have students put their hands down and report the results back to the class (probably everybody).

Main Activity
Copyright and Fair Use
Common Core Standards:

Together or in small groups have students read through Worksheet 1.4.

In partners, have the students generate questions they have after reading the definition of Fair Use and Transformativeness. Write these words on the board and have the class come up with their own definitions.

Make posters of these definitions and post around the class or near computers that the students will use when editing their stories.

Standards
ISTE: Electronic Media Production, 9.0 Students will demonstrate ethics in the industry.

Reading for Informational Text
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7-12.10 By the end of the year, read and comprehend literary nonfiction in the grades 7-12 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.

Writing
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7-12 .3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using an effective technique, relevant descriptive details, and well-structured event sequences.

File Attachments

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Lesson 1.4: Copyright & Fair Use - PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs

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Subjects: Journalism, Language Arts, Social Studies Estimated Time: One 25-minute class period Grade Level: Middle and High School Overview: In developing video packages for the PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs program, your students may want to incorporate copyrighted materials, including photographs, music, film or video clips.

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Vocabulary

copyright [ kop-ee-rahyt] ( noun) The exclusive right to make copies, license and otherwise exploit a literary, musical or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.

trademark [ treyd-mahrk] ( noun) Any name, symbol, figure, letter, word or mark adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant in order to designate specific goods and to distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others

fair use [fair yoos] ( noun) Reasonable and limited use of copyrighted material so as not to infringe upon copyright

free expression [free ik- spresh-uh n] ( noun) The right of people to express their opinions, thoughts or ideas publicly without governmental interference

intellectual property [in-tl- ek-choo-uh l prop-er-tee] ( noun) Property that results from original creative thought, as patents, copyright material and trademarks

transform [trans- fawrm] ( verb) To change in form, appearance or structure

copyright infringement [ kop-ee-rahyt in- frinj-muh nt] ( noun) The use of works protected by copyright law by reproducing, distributing, displaying or performing the protected work, or to make derivative works without permission
Source: dictionary.com
Lesson Overview

This lesson focuses on copyright and fair use. Students will discuss these concepts and then complete a project demonstrating what they learned.

Procedure

1. Begin the class by asking students to brainstorm what they know about copyright and copyright law. Draw the copyright symbol © on the board. Where do they see this symbol and what does it mean? Ask if any students know the difference between a copyright and a trademark. (Copyright is geared toward literary and artistic works, such as books and videos. A trademark protects items that help define a company brand, such as its logo.)

2. Tell students that copyrights give inventors and artists exclusive ownership of something they've created and prevent them from being copied. This protection gives the owner the opportunity to profit from their creation. Ask students to brainstorm different items that inventors and artists might copyright.

3. Next, ask students what they think the term "fair use" means. Ask students to think about why someone might want to use a song or a work of art but not want to profit from its use? How might others use an invention or work of art fairly and legally? Why might an owner of a copyright want to give permission for someone to use their invention or work of art?

4. Divide the class into small groups of three to four students. Distribute the Understanding Copyright and Shared Reading Questions handouts to all students. Have each group read the Understanding Copyright handout aloud. (Note: If time is short, reading could be assigned the night before.) Ask each group to discuss the questions for one section on the Shared Reading Questions handout. Once the groups finish their discussions, provide an opportunity for students to ask clarifying questions about terms or concepts from the reading.

5. Debrief using the following discussion prompts:

Summarize the benefits of copyright law to the individual creators of intellectual property, such as artwork or books.

Summarize the benefits of copyright law to the general public.

Explain how the fair use doctrine works and how it benefits the promotion of ideas and information.

6. Divide students into small groups of three to four students. Distribute one copy of the Making, Remixing and Sharing Content handout to each group. Ask the groups to review the handout, and then provide time for students to create their projects. If your class has computer access, you can have students produce their projects in digital form.

7. When projects are completed, have students present them to the full class.
Alignment to Common Core State Standards
CCSS 9-10
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.3
Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.8
Delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing whether the reasoning is valid and the evidence is relevant and sufficient; identify false statements and fallacious reasoning.

CCSS 11-12
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.2
Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3
Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact and develop over the course of the text.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative, connotative, and technical meanings; analyze how an author uses and refines the meaning of a key term or terms over the course of a text

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copyright [ kop-ee-rahyt] ( noun) The exclusive right to make copies, license and otherwise exploit a literary, musical or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video, etc.

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Kathy Schrock's Guide to Intellectual Property

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Kathy Schrock's Guide to Intellectual Property

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Copyright: Kathy Schrock. All rights reserved.
Republishing of these lists of links without express and written permission from this site's author is not allowed.

Links to this page may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Schrock and Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything with appropriate and specific direction (via the URL) to the original compilation of information on this page.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available by emailing the creator.

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Copyright: Kathy Schrock. All rights reserved. Republishing of these lists of links without express and written permission from this site's author is not allowed. Links to this page may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kathy Schrock and Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything with appropriate and specific direction (via the URL) to the original compilation of information on this page.

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In this educational animated movie about English learn about copyright law, plagiarism, parody, rights, and infringement.

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Created for 2nd Grade

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With so much information at our fingertips, students learn what it means to "give credit" when using content they find online. Taking on the role of a detective, students learn why it's important to give credit and the right ways to do it when they use words, images, or ideas that belong to others.

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Let's Give Credit! | Common Sense Education

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How can you give credit for other people's work? Check out Let's Give Credit!, a free digital citizenship lesson plan from Common Sense Education, to get your grade 2 students thinking critically and using technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate.

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4th Grade

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A Creator's Rights and Responsibilities | Common Sense Education

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What rights and responsibilities do you have as a creator? Check out A Creator's Rights and Responsibilities, a free digital citizenship lesson plan from Common Sense Education, to get your grade 4 students thinking critically and using technology responsibly to learn, create, and participate.

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7th Grade

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The Statute of Anne, and Influential Copyright Law

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The Statute of Anne, and Influential Copyright Law

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Grades 6-12

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There is much more to explore in our calendar. Find other important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, each with related lessons and resources.

Looking for age-appropriate book recommendations, author interviews, and fun activity ideas? Check out our podcasts.

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The Statute of Anne, an influential copyright law, went into effect in 1710. - ReadWriteThink

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There is much more to explore in our calendar. Find other important events in literary history, authors' birthdays, and a variety of holidays, each with related lessons and resources. Looking for age-appropriate book recommendations, author interviews, and fun activity ideas? Check out our podcasts.

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Students as Creators - Exploring Copyright

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Students as Creators - Exploring Copyright

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Grades 6-8

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you.

Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

Teacher Resources by Grade

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Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan

Grades

6 - 8

Lesson Plan Type

Standard Lesson

Estimated Time

Five 50-minute sessions

Lesson Author

Publisher

Featured Resources From Theory to Practice
OVERVIEW

This lesson gives students the tools they need to consider the ethical issues surrounding use and ownership of copyrighted materials. Students discuss how to tell if a work is protected and how copyright affects their ability to use resources in their own work. They use five key questions to determine if they can legally use a resource. Students then use specific tools and resources to find works that are in the public domain and explore how to contact copyright holders for permission to use works that are not in the public domain. Next, students practice properly citing multimedia resources. Finally, students explore how and when to protect their own works from copyright infringement. This lesson can be used in conjunction with any student project to address copyright.

This lesson plan was developed as part of a collaborative professional project with the American Library Association Office for Information Technology Policy and the American Association of School Librarians (AASL).
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FEATURED RESOURCES
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"Can I Use It?" Checklist for Copyright Clearance: Students and teachers can use the chart on this printout to determine if a particular resource can be legally used in students' work.

Copyright Organizer: Students can use this printout to document resources they may want to use in a project or paper.

FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE

Fair Use law relaxes restrictions about acceptable use of copyrighted material in student work. It is still important, however, that students understand the more stringent rules that apply outside Fair Use. They will need to work within these rules outside school, and, as is increasingly common, when publishing their works on the Web. By giving students strategies for determining whether a use of copyrighted work is acceptable, demonstrating the means by which they can obtain permission to use a copyrighted work, and asking them to consider the possibility of copyrighting their own works, educators foster an understanding of both the purpose and means of respecting the intellectual property rights of others.

Further Reading

Hobbs, Renee. Copyright Clarity: How Fair Use Supports Digital Learning. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2010.

Copyright Kids. Copyright Society of the USA. 2007.
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NCTE Executive Committee, November 2008. Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. Online: http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/fairusemedialiteracy.

Hobbs, Renee. "Best Practices Help End Copyright Confusion". The Council Chronicle 18.3 (March 2009): 12-27.

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Students as Creators: Exploring Copyright - ReadWriteThink

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ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals.

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Understanding Copyright and Fair Use Laws

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Understanding Copyright and Fair Use Laws

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Understanding copyright and fair use as it applies to video production

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Understanding Copyright and Fair Use Laws (CTE)

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We read all incoming messages and will get to yours in the order it was received. We aim to respond to messages within one business day, but it may take up to 3 business days to respond depending on the request.

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Grades 9-12

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Copyright Criminals examines the creative and commercial value of musical sampling, including the related debates over artistic expression, copyright law, and money.

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Create a PSA teaching fellow students what they need to know about fair use and creative commons licensing.

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The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

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The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

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Copyright Interactive Tools

Education Librarian

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LibGuides: Copyright Resources for K-12 Schools: Interactive Tools for Copyright

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Skip to main content It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results. Copyright Interactive Tools

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Is it Protected by Copyright Interactive

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Is it Protected by Copyright Interactive

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This tool is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the American Library Association, the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy nor Michael Brewer are engaged in rendering legal, copyright or other professional advice.

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Plagiarism is a common (and often misunderstood) problem that is often the result of a lack of knowledge and skills. Our mission is to support the education community with a comprehensive set of resources to help students write with integrity.

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© 2007, The Copyright Society of the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

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Creating online teaching modules takes an enormous amount of time. Many teachers are tempted by the swift right-click-save-as action, or popular CTRL-C / CTRL-V shortcut to, well, take short cuts.

Teachers that randomly and freely use online content in their lessons, and often trample over copyright in the process, have a common excuse, "...but it's for a good purpose." School administrators trying to curb the practice are inversely seen as sticklers or buzz-kills.

Retaining and protecting the rights of content owners is not only an important principle in keeping the internet a safe and vibrant place for original creation and content, but teaching students the importance of attribution is a critical lesson in the boundary between research and plagiarism. A skill that becomes more important as they move into college, as plagiarism is likely to get them kicked out of college and will dramatically affect their academic record.

So, let's walk our talk and not only teach ethics, but also teach in a way that is ethical. The first step on this journey is to understand the difference between copyright and fair use.

What is copyrighted material?

We will refer here only to the U.S. Copyright Law. The U.S. code defines copyrighted material in surprisingly broad terms: practically everything that is tangible, and originally created, attracts copyright protection - even if the author hasn't used the copyright symbol, or explicitly stated that the work is copyrighted.

A list of non-copyrighted work includes:

Work that is not fixed in tangible form or expression

Titles, slogans, short phrases and names

Ideas, concepts & principles

Procedures & processes

Discoveries

Methods of operation, lists of ingredients

Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship, such as standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers

Work in the public domain, in the U.S. this means:

Any work published before 1923

Work published between 1923-1978 that did not declare or renew its copyright

Work by a federal employee

Work whose author has issued it into the public domain.

Many teachers assume that the fair use rule exempts them from any restrictions, but this is not the case. Fair use, while applying to instruction and teaching, also has limitations that are intended to protect the rights and commercial benefits of an author or creator.

What is fair use?

When establishing whether your intended usage of material is "fair" as defined by the copyright code, teachers are obliged to ask themselves a number of questions.

How am I using the material? Altering, interpreting or adjusting material is more likely to be considered fair use, than copying vast tracts verbatim. For instance, if you found a great infographic online that perfectly describes what you are teaching, perhaps consider using concepts from the infographic to create your own, than simply copying and pasting - which would, in fairness, require permission from the creator.

Is the work factual or creative? Factual work is more likely to be considered fair use, than creative work. If you want, for instance, to teach about the life of Abraham Lincoln, consider extracting facts and figures from reputable websites, than playing your class the movie Lincoln.

How much of the work will I use? If you are hoping to copy and paste an entire article from The Economist to make a point about the NAFTA renegotiations, you will be out of bounds of the fair use rule. Using a few paragraphs, or quotes, should however be acceptable under the rule.

Does my usage limit the commercial benefit to the author? This is especially true of educational content created by professionals, who rely on its sale and distribution for their livelihood. Photocopying whole chapters of textbooks, as opposed to encouraging your students to buy the book is clearly not fair use.

The fair use rule gives teachers a reasonable framework within which to decide if they need to request permission for using material or not. There are however other options for the resourceful teacher, seeking thought-provoking content.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a non-profit organisation that permits copyright holders to more easily share their work, within the copyright framework. The licenses come in four basic formats:

CC BY (Attribution). This is the most open license and permits users to share, alter, remix and change the original material for distribution, but they must credit the creator.

CC BY-ND (Non-Derivative). This license allows for free commercial and noncommercial distribution, the work is not permitted to be altered and the creator must be credited.

CC BY-NC (Non-Commercial). This allows for derivative work (work that has been altered from the original) to be created from the original, but only for noncommercial purposes. Attribution must be given.

CC BY-SA (Share Alike). This license allows for commercial derivatives, but any new work resulting must also be distributed under the same license. Creators must be credited.

CC BY-NC-SA (Non-Commercial Share Alike). Here the derivative work may not be used for commercial purposes, and must be distributed under the same license category. Creators must be credited.

CC BY-NC-ND (Non-Commercial, Non-Derivative). Here you may download and share the work, as long as it is for noncommercial purposes, and no derivatives may be created. Creators must be credited.

The below graphic is a helpful way to understand the various licences. Sourced from foter.com under a BY-SA license.

Free resources

Finally, there are a host of truly wonderful free-to-use resources online. Find a good list of free photo, music and video resources here. Be aware that much of the work will be released under one or other Creative Commons license.

A final word

Working within a copyright or Creative Commons framework may seem restrictive and cumbersome. However, if creative people are going to continue producing eye-catching and thought provoking work of quality, they need a system that ensures they are correctly acknowledged and remunerated.

The ideal of the internet is a free, open space where original, useful and important work can be created, shared and enhanced - copyright and licenses ensure it remains that way.

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What every teacher must know about copyright for online lessons | NEO BLOG

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Creating online teaching modules takes an enormous amount of time. Many teachers are tempted by the swift right-click-save-as action, or popular CTRL-C / CTRL-V shortcut to, well, take short cuts. Teachers that randomly and freely use online content in their lessons, and often trample over copyright in the process, have a common excuse, "...but it's for a good purpose."

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**[OLD VERSION]** C&C A.3 What’s Up with Copyright Anyway?—A Brief (Very Brief!) History and Basics

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Creators and Consumers of Copyright Online

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Creators and Consumers of Copyright Online

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C&C A.1  Creators and Consumers of Media Online

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Shutterstock Royalty Free Image Categories

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Shutterstock Royalty Free Image Categories

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With millions of royalty free images in our catalog, and more added every day, you're sure to find the perfect image or graphic for your next project at Shutterstock. Our entire collection of images is royalty free, meaning you can use them in just about every application possible without paying a royalty fee for each time you use the image.

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License images you can confidently use for any project | Shutterstock

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Explore over 200 millions of royalty free images at Shutterstock and stop worrying about having to pay royalties every time you use a photo. Start browsing now!

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Academic Library Collections

Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries - Archival Image Collection.
Another great resource for digital images. Collection strengths in late 19 th-20 th century American architecture.

CalPhotos: Berkeley University Digital Library Project
Over 80,000 photographs of plants, animals, people, and landscapes from Corel Stock Photos, and DWR Photos.

China between 1917 and 1932 (Duke University Libraries)
Collection of Sidney D. Gamble (1890-1968).

UCLA Image Resources
Image Resources guide including Creative Commons, Open Content, & Public Domain images.

Yale Digital Commons
250,000 images "without license" from Yale Center for British Art, Yale Peabody Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, and Yale University Library.

Yale University Online Digital Collections
Access to a cross-collection of over 500,000 images in selected Yale Library Digital Collections.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Online collections containing maps, photographs, letters, and more. Read about Copyright and the Collections.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog
Thousands of digitized images with catalog records from 54 historic collections. Some images in the collections are not accessible online.

The New York Public Library Digital Gallery
Over 800,000 images digitized from primary and rare print sources in the NYPL collections including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints and photographs, illustrated books, printed ephemera, and more. Browsable categories include Arts and Literature, Cities and Buildings, Culture and Society, History and Geography, Industry and Technology, Nature and Science, Printing and Graphics and Gallery Collections. Also available, a Flickr photostream.

The New York Public Library/Mid-Manhattan Library Picture Collection Online
A collection of 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923.

Cleveland Museum of Art Open Access Images
Over 34,000 images dedicated to Public Domain with Creative Commons Zero (CC0) for Open Access.

Currier Museum of Art
A quick resource guide for fair use images.

Frick Collection
The Frick Collection's digital archive of over 150,00 images, photographs, books, and archives.

George Eastman Museum Collections
"A steadily growing digital image sampler and browsing resource for the vast photography holdings of George Eastman House." Browse images in Photography, Moving Image, Technology, or the Legacy collection.

The Getty Museum Collection
100,000+ high resolution, reproduction-quality digital images of artworks from the J. Paul Getty Museum collections available for download with embedded metadata. Includes: Foto Arte Minore collection of 72,000 Max Hutzel photographs of art and architecture in Italy and nearly 5000 images of 15th-18th century tapestries. Getty Search Gateway offers a search of all Getty repositories including collections databases, library catalogs, collection inventories, and archival finding aids.

LACMA
Image Library has about 20,000 high-res digital downloads for any use.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
More than 200,000 high-resolution digital images of public domain works in the Museum's world-renowned collection may be downloaded directly from the Museum's website for non-commercial use.

Metropolitan Museum of Art - Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Art history reference and research tool with more than 7,000 works of art, accompanied by 300 chronologies and 1,000 essays.

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Over 60,000 high-res images available for download.

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Open Access Images
More than 51,000 open access digital images (in the public domain) that are up to 3000 pixels each. Downloads available with registration.

Rauschenberg Research Project (SFMOMA)
Provides zoomable images of artworks created by Robert Rauschenberg.

The Rijksmuseum
Offers high-res digital downloads free for non-commercial use.

Smithsonian Open Access
Over 2.8 million high-resolution 2-D and 3-D images from all Smithsonian museums, research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Includes 27,000+ photographs and 4,600+ moving image records.

Victoria and Albert Museum
Search for over half a million works and images from the V&A collections. The database covers a wide range of objects, including ceramics, fashion, furniture, glass, metalwork, paintings, photographs, prints, sculpture, and textiles.

The Walters Art Museum
Thousands of high-quality digital images of artworks from around the world and across the centuries available for download.

Art Images for College Teaching (AICT)
Images of art and architectural works in the public domain made available on a free-access, free-use basis to all levels of the educational community, as well as to the public at large. Emphasis on ancient, medieval, and Renaissance European art and architecture.

Art Institute of Chicago Public Domain Images
Over 40,000 images from the collection available for download under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license.

Artstor Public Collections
Powered by Artstor, this freely accessible platform includes over 1 million images, videos, documents, and audio files.

Artsy Education
An educational resource containing 85,000+ digital images of artworks and architecture (25,000+ downloadable) , including one of the largest collections of contemporary art. Offers tips related to downloading, exploring, and teaching with digital images.

British Library in Flickr Commons
Over 1,000,000 images in the public domain scanned from 17-19th century books, including maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colourful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more.

Digital Public Library of America
Refine your search to images from America's leading libraries, archives, and museums in this aggregate of online digital collections, containing over 650,000 images.

Google Art Project
Collaborative open-access project between Google and over 150 art partners worldwide. "Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share."

Google Material Design icons
Open-source package of 750 icons targeted for designers and developers for use in mobile apps and interactive projects. Preview icon set.

The International Advertising & Design Database (IADDB)
​Includes high resolution scans of advertisements, posters, magazines, as well as streaming commercials.

Internet Archive Book Images
2.6 million images with searchable tags.

Library of Congress - Free to Use and Reuse Sets
Select images from full LOC collections that are in public domain and grouped into browsable sets like architecture & design, posters, and dogs.

Wellcome Images
Over 100,000 images available for free download as hi-res images, including historical content such as manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photography and advertisements and 'themes around medicine and the wider history of health.'

Hundreds of stock photography sites exist, but below are a few good examples.

Getty Images
Creative and editorial images with an embed feature that allows users to share images on websites, blogs, or social media.

Gratisography
​High resolution images photographed by designer, Ryan McGuire. Available for download and categorized into subjects animals, nature, objects, people, urban, whimsical.

Life of Pix
Free high resolution images donated to the public domain with new images added weekly. Categorized by subject in the gallery. Made by LEEROY Creative Agency in Montreal

Magnum Photos (Incorporated into Artstor - March 2009)
500,000 online images chronicling major world events and personalities.

Aluka
Scholarly resources from and about Africa including digital images of Africa and its many cultures.

Digital Library (White House Historical Association)
Free, low-resolution downloads to registered users as well as extensive, detailed metadata for images covering the history of the White House.

History of Medicine (US National Library of Medicine)
60,000 images from the prints and photography collection of the History of Medicine Division.

LIFE photo archive hosted by Google
Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today.

Mary Evans Picture Library
Provides professionals with a growing collection of historic pictures for reproduction to support their archive. Image collections divided into categories of: art and costume, beliefs, events, portraits, science and medicine, trade and industry, social sciences, places and nature, politics and law, sports and entertainment, places and nature, transport. Registration to access the site is required.

Maya Cities of the Puuc Region, Yucatán, Mexico: Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, & Labná
Provides 19th and early 20th century drawings, prints, and photographs, most rare or previously unpublished, revealing how sites were imaged by early explorers and scholars. Plus over 1000 recent photographs with descriptive captions.

Scholars Resource
Offers 116,000 digital images of works of art to supplement teaching in Ancient Art, Egyptian, Greek and Roman, Non-Western, Early Christian, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Nineteenth Century, Impressionism, American Art, Art of the Americas and Contemporary Art and Architecture. Digital Image Sets are viewable and images may be purchased individually. Please contact the Arts Resources Specialist for more details.

Symbols.com
Contains 2,500+ Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics ranging from ancient ideograms to hobo signs and subway graffiti. Includes articles of symbol histories, uses, and meanings.

Visual Collections Site (Cartography Associates)
Over 50 collections and 300,000 images from museums, universities, and private collections worldwide. Topics divided into Cartography, Fine Arts, Architecture, Photography, etc. images from Museums, Universities and private collections throughout the world.

Zimbabwe Rock Art
These images are on Flickr by Steve Tatum. They are for educational, non-commercial use.

Brown University Art & Architecture Images
An annotated compilation list that includes notes when images are freely available.

Purchase College Library - Finding Images
Divided by subject: Art, News & Historical, Science

University of Colorado, Boulder
List of select image resources.

University of Minnesota Libraries - Images Collections Guides
Comprehensive images guides divided by subject: Arts, Humanities, Professional Programs (Architecture/ Journalism/ Marketing/ Apparel), Agricultural Biological & Environmental Sciences, Social Sciences, University/ Regional/ Creative Commons, Biomedical Sciences, Physical Sciences & Engineering

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LibGuides: Visual Resources: List of Image Collections

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Academic Library Collections Art Institute of Chicago, Ryerson and Burnham Libraries - Archival Image Collection. Another great resource for digital images. Collection strengths in late 19 th-20 th century American architecture. CalPhotos: Berkeley University Digital Library Project Over 80,000 photographs of plants, animals, people, and landscapes from Corel Stock Photos, and DWR Photos.

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EDUimages by All4Ed - Images of Teachers and Students in Action

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EDUimages is a free library of photos celebrating students-and the educators who teach them-in seven schools across the United States.