Russell Stannard makes sure we don’t go wrong on copyright.
There is a lot of confusion surrounding the legal use of photos and illustrations. Teachers often don’t know what the rules are regarding the use of copyright images or where they can get images that are copyright free. Whenever a discussion on technology comes up, inevitably someone asks me about copyright. So in this issue I am going to outline the basic rules, and point out some useful sources of copyright-free images – even images you can use commercially. The laws may vary around the world, but these general principles should help you.
The basic rule
Any image you use, no matter where it is from, was originally made by someone and, therefore, someone owns the copyright to it. This means that whenever you use an image that is not yours, you should ask for permission to use it, since you don’t own the copyright. Even if you take an image from the internet and change or adapt it quite radically, you do not own the copyright to your new image. It is the owner of the original image who owns the copyright, and you still have to ask for permission to use it. These same rules apply to video and audio – and even text.
Fair use
In reality, of course, contacting the owner of every image (or other digital product) you use in your PowerPoint slides or on your blog could take you ages, and there is something called ‘Fair use’ which makes things a little easier. It is understood that, in certain spheres, a limited amount of copyrighted material will probably be used. For example, if you review a book for a newspaper, then you are quite likely to need to use quotes or extracts from that book in your review – and this would be deemed fair use.
In education, we are to some degree protected as well. The problem is there is no hard or fast rule about the amount of copyrighted material that it is deemed ‘fair’ to use, and so you have to use your own judgement. If, for example, you are using a number of images for a set of PowerPoint slides that you will show to a few groups of students on a certain course, then you are probably safe, since they are not being used commercially or being displayed in any sort of public forum beyond your classes. If, however, you used the same images on a blog that anyone in the world could access, then this might not be deemed ‘fair’.
The key factor is often whether the images are being used for commercial purposes. This is when the owners of images do get upset, since they see a person or organisation benefiting from something that they created. Using six or seven images in a PowerPoint presentation is very unlikely to get you into trouble, but what you can do, at least, is to acknowledge the source of the images, even if you don’t have the time or information to get permission from the creator.
No problem
You can actually avoid the problem altogether. Few people realise that when you use Google Images it is possible to do quite sophisticated searches. Type in the name of the sort of picture you are searching for and then click on ‘Search tools’. You will see a whole range of options, including size, colour, type (such as clip art or drawings) – you can even search for images produced at a certain time. Choose some of the options and you will notice that your images are filtered. I find this very useful as I often make use of the ‘size’ filter, since I sometimes need images of a particular size. On the right-hand side, you will see a little ‘wheel’, and if you roll over the wheel, it should say ‘Options’. Click on ‘Advanced search’, which is one of the choices under ‘Options’. Right at the bottom you will find ‘Usage rights’. Use this to search for images that are copyright free and for those that you can even use commercially.
Usage rights
You will notice that there are various degrees of usage rights. Some owners of images don’t like their images to be modified but are happy for you to use them in their original format. Others are happy for you to modify their images, but you are not allowed to use them for commercial purposes. You will need to choose the right option for you. I have provided a help video (see the end of this article) that will take you through a Google Images advanced search.
ELT Pics
Another useful source of images for teachers in ELT (and, in fact, for all teachers) is ELT Pics (www.eltpics.com/index.html). This is a website of images created through the contributions of teachers. The images are copyright free but cannot be used for commercial purposes. You are expected to show the source of the image you use (see the ‘Image attribution’ section of the site). In addition, you can upload any of your own images that you are happy to share. The site also provides lots of useful information about downloading and using images.
Help videos for Google Images searches: www.teachertrainingvideos.com/googleimages/index.html
Russell Stannard is a Principal Lecturer in ICT at the University of Warwick, UK, where he teaches on the MA in ELT. He won the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Initiatives in Information and Communications Technology in 2008, TEFLnet Site of the Year in 2009 and a 2010 British Council ELTon award, all for his popular website www.teachertrainingvideos.com.