Step 7: Images, Copyright, and Creative Commons

  Step 7: Images, Copyright, and Creative Commons
  This important step introduces you to copyright, fair use, and using images on blogs. You will learn how to find and add Creative Commons and public domain images to your blog posts.
Intro to Copyright , Fair use, and Images in posts
 You can not just use any image you like in a blog post. Why? Because unless stated otherwise, the law automatically grants full “copyright “ over any creative work a person makes.
Just because you find it on Google... Does not Make it free! You may be thinking it’s okay because as educators, we have a few more flexible copyright rules, called “Fair Use”, to play by.
 Fair Use , in some cases, means you may have more flexible copyright rules if an image, text, video, etc. is being used for educational purposes.Fair Use, Copyright, and Cretive Commons
 The trouble is, most of the laws and rules that cover fair use and education were written well before the invention of the web. They don’t apply to use of copyright material on the Internet. Using copyright material leaves you open to copyright infringement. So what does this mean? You need to:
1. Learn what images you are and aren’t allowed to use, and why.
2. Learn how to correctly attribute images you are to allowed to use.
3. Educate your students that you can not just use any images online on your blog (or other digital work).
4. Show them how to source and attribute images they are allowed to use.
Understanding digital copyright is an essential skill we need to understand and teach our students.
Refer to The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons for comprehensive information on the use of images, curriculum docs, text and quotes, music, and videos. The safest way to source images for your blog is to either:

• Use Creative Commons images.
• Use free ( Creative Commons Zero) or public domain images .
• Use your own photos or use Images you have created.

 Include the Source is not enough
  A situation we commonly see on blogs is where someone uses and image they found online and then include a link to the site they got it from. Just because you link to the source of an image, does not mean you can use it. You would need to ask the image creator for permission. Read on to find out about Creative Commons and ways you can find images to use — legally and ethically.