In
social media, images have become the eye candy that draws readers to your blog
and Facebook posts. If the image is one
you created yourself, you’re good to go.
But what about those times you can’t create your own images? Is it OK to just use that great picture you
found on the internet?
It’s
safest to assume that all images on the web are copyrighted with all rights
reserved, unless otherwise stated. That
means you need to get permission for use from the image creator, or possibly
face penalties ranging from a take-down notice, to a bill requesting payment
for use of the image, to legal action against you. Not to mention – asking permission is moral
and ethical.
A
number of artists and photographers, sometimes in an effort to generate notice
for their work, have made their images available for use under Creative Commons (CC) licenses. The creator can put the image into the public domain (waiving all
copyright), or retain some rights and choose from six licenses, ranging from
simple attribution
(permitting derivatives and commercial reuse, CC-BY), to allowing reuse as long as it
is noncommercial and the work is not modified (CC-BY-NC-ND).
 |
| This work, "CC Chart", is a derivative of slide 88 of “The OER 101 Workshop at USM II” by Zaid Alsagoff used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.5. ”CC Chart” is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.5 by Amanda Pape. |
There
are a number of tools available to help you find copyright-friendly images,
such as Creative Commons
Search
and flickrCC. Recently, Google Image Search made finding such images much easier.
1.
Enter
your search term.
2.
Click
on Search tools.
3.
Click
on Usage rights.
4.
Select
the appropriate license (“Not filtered by license” is the default).
 |
| Google image search screen shot taken and further modified by Amanda Pape, CC-BY |
Images
(if any) that fit the license restrictions will appear. Depending on your search terms and the
license you choose, images may come from Flickr, Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay, or the Open
Clip Art
library.
It’s
important to note that ALL Creative
Commons licenses require users to provide attribution to the creator.
What is
attribution? It’s the journalistic practice of crediting information to its
source (so you know where something came from), and a concept in copyright law
requiring acknowledgement of the creator of a work (such as an image) which is
used or appears in another work (such as your blog or Facebook post).
Why
should you provide attributions? Using
other's images without giving credit is plagiarism. Also, think about how you might feel if
someone “borrowed” one of your images to use on a website and did not give you
credit, thereby implying that the image was their (or another’s) creation. This has happened to me (more than once), and I wasn’t too
happy about it. (Luckily, in both cases,
the borrowers added or corrected the attribution when I commented on the
mistake.)
When
using Creative Commons images, you must credit the photographers/artists in the
manner they specify (if they do so).
Sometimes you can find the preferred attribution with the image, or on a
profile page from the website where you found the image.
Just as
there are tools to help you find copyright-friendly images to use, there are
tools available to generate attributions when no specific one is provided. Unfortunately, none of the tools I’ve tried
(such as flickrCC, OpenAttribute, and ImageCodr) fully and consistently meet the Creative Commons guidelines for attribution,
which require that you:
- Cite the work’s title or name (and link it directly to source of the original work).
- Cite the author’s name, screen or real (and link to the author’s profile page when available).
- Cite the specific CC license the work is under (and link to the license deed on the CC website).
- Keep intact any copyright notices for the work.
- Indicate if the image has been modified or adapted by you in any way.
If you
use one of the citation tools mentioned above, take what it generates and fill
in the missing pieces, as much as you can.
Make some effort, just as you would in citing sources in a paper written
for an assignment in school. The two
images used in this blog post provide examples of proper attribution.
Here
are some additional resources on proper attribution:
·
http://foter.com/blog/how-to-attribute-creative-commons-photos/ (has a great
infographic), and
Amanda Pape is the Coordinator for Archives
and Special Services for the Tarleton State University Libraries. She regularly uses (and attributes!) Creative
Commons images on her genealogy and family history blog, ABT UNK.
great post thanks
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