Copyright law protects authors, artists, and creators so that they can benefit from and protect the tangible works they create. Copyright holders have the exclusive right to copy and distribute their works, and to publicly perform and display their works, among other things. How can you use someone else's work without infringing on their copyrights?
First, consider using works that are in the public domain, which are materials not protected by intellectual property laws such as copyright. A work may have entered the public domain because the copyright expired, the copyright owner has dedicated the work to the public domain, or it may be a work published by the U.S. Federal Government.
Although there are a number of other scenarios where a work might exist in the public domain, you can identify many public domain works because they are:
This is a simple overview of the public domain. Determining whether a work is in the public domain can be quite complicated. If you'd like to read more about copyright, fair use, and the public domain, Stanford University Libraries has an excellent guide.
The videos located in the following websites are generally free for you to use, though you should always double check the terms of use for yourself to avoid copyright infringement.
The images located in the following websites are generally free for you to use, though you should always double check the terms of use for yourself to avoid copyright infringement.
A growing body of copyright protected work is openly licensed. This means that a copyright holder has proactively agreed to allow users to do a variety of things with his or her work, which might include copying, redistributing, revising, and remixing that work without seeking permission first. One organization, Creative Commons, has developed licenses that copyright holders can attach to their works in the form of six different open licenses. Each license has slightly different requirements that users must follow.
The CC-BY or Attribution license allows you to do whatever you want with the work as long as you provide attribution.
The CC-BY-SA or Attribution Share-Alike license allows you to do whatever you want with the work as long as you provide attribution and any new work you create by using this work (derivatives) must be licensed in the same way.
The CC-BY-NC or Attribution NonCommercial license allows you to do whatever you want with the work as long as you provide attribution and do not profit from its use.
The CC-BY-NC-SA or Attribution NonCommercial Share-Alike license allows you to do do whatever you want with the work as long as you provide attribution, do not profit from its use, and license derivative works with the same license.
The CC-BY-ND or Attribution No Derivs license allows you to use a work without modification as long as you provide attribution to the author or creator.
The CC-BY-NC-ND or Attribution NonCommercial No Derivs license allows you to use a work without modification as long as you provide attribution and do not profit from its use.
Attribution Required
If you use a Creative Commons licensed work, all six licenses require attribution. A proper attribution includes:
A useful online tool to help you create attributions is the Open Washington Attribution Builder.
The audio located in the following websites are generally free for you to use, though you should always double check the terms of use for yourself to avoid copyright infringement.
