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ENGL 1102 (Weaver) - English Composition II (Digital Projects): Copyright & Fair Use

Copyright - Creative Commons Licenses

Image result for creative commons licenses

Image courtesy of MaconEastLibraryProjects, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

Finding Media to Use

Specially Licensed

  • Some media is made available for others to use through special licenses. A popular license that does it the Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning it can be used freely as long as the creator is given proper attribution.
    • Search for works (images, music, & more) to use - CC Search  
    • Google Images (can be filtered by Usage Rights under Tools)
    • YouTube (search results can be filtered by CC license)
    • Learn more about Creative Commons licenses - CC Licenses

Public Domain

  • Works that are not copyrighted are considered to be in the public domain. Some reasons they might be in the public domain are 1) they are very old, 2) their copyright has expired, 3) they were created by the federal government.

Guidelines for Using Media

Below are some guidelines to follow when using media in digital projects.

  • Be sure to give complete credit to the author or creator of the content. Include *at least* a name, title, date of creation, and URL.
  • Use only a small amount of content in your work (a few seconds of a video or song rather than the entire work).

What is Fair Use?

Fair use is a concept embedded in Title 17, section 107 of U.S. law that recognizes that certain uses of copyright-protected works do not require permission from the copyright holder. Under this section fair use is determined by four factors:

  1. The purpose of the use (e.g. commercial vs. educational)*
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work
  3. The amount of the material used (the greater the amount copied, the less likely it is fair use)
  4. The effect of use on the potential market for or value of the work

* Not all uses in an academic context are automatically considered fair use!

The Fair Use Doctrine is probably the most important exemption to copyright protections for educational settings, allowing many uses of copyrighted works for the purposes of teaching and research. The complexity of fair use and its importance in academia make it imperative that every member of the scholarly community understands how to make judgements concerning fair use.