Appropriate Image & Media Use

There are a variety of academic reasons an individual may need to use an image or media including teaching in person, developing an online course, preparing an assignment, or publishing a scholarly article. Each situation requires careful consideration of the visual elements, intellectual property status, and whether it is appropriate to use. Consider the following questions if you need to use an image or media:

• Am I compliant with the four factors of fair use?

• Is the image or media in the public domain?

• Does the image or media use a Creative Commons license that allows this use? 

• If no, to the above questions. Obtain permission from the copyright holder or choice different content.

Learn more about these terms by visiting the Copyright, Fair Use & Public Domain guide. This helpful video also walks through questions about image use.

Credit the Source

A good practice, which can help protect you against copyright Infringement, is clearly crediting the content creator. If you have permission to use an image/media, consider keeping the following information when managing your content, so that proper citations and credit can be given later.

• Given resource name
• Author/owner
• Type of material (ex. video, image, website)
• Link to resource
• Description of resource
• License type*
• Location in work (ex. Chapter 2, Section 2.5)