Library Home: FIND: Articles, books, videos, etc.: Image Use

Do I have to use citations or attributions with images? Yes.

Best practices for attribution "You can use CC-licensed materials as long as you follow the license conditions. One condition of all CC licenses is attribution...A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym TASL, which stands for Title, Author, Source, License."
Copyright Reminder
To find out where an image came from, Search with Google Images & Tineye

Easiest works to use are - Images you create, for which you own the copyright. Ask a librarian to help you find Public Domain and Creative Commons images.

Images in the Public Domain are also fairly easy to use. Creative Commons licences loosen some copyright restrictions, but you must pay attention to which license is granted.

You cannot legally put the contents of a book on a public website unless you wrote the book and/or own the copyright, or got written permission to do so.

Consider a photo, video, drawing, painting, music recording, etc. to be a full work of art, like the contents of a book, and treat it likewise.

"Fair Use" may apply to non-commercial, personal (not public publication), educational use that does not prevent the owner of the work's copyright from getting monetary compensation for the use of their work.

Use the Four Factors test to evaluate whether your use may fall under "Fair Use"
1. If the purpose and character of your use is non-profit - that leans towards "Fair Use"
2. If the nature of the copyrighted work is a fact or an idea rather than the presentation of facts or ideas, that leans towards "Fair Use"
3. If the amount and substantiality of the portion taken is minimal and is not the main point of the work, that leans towards "Fair Use"
4. If the effect of the use upon the potential market is expected to be minimal or non-existent, that leans towards "Fair use"
If your use in a commercial context, you may not meet the criteria for "Fair Use."
When in doubt, I would recommend finding a different image or video to illustrate your concept.
When the use of an image is involved in business or other commercial enterprise,
...you need to pay the owner of the copyrighted image, or get written permission to use it, or prove that the use was within "Fair Use" limitations. You may need to prove this in court.
"Public Domain" images are not under copyright protection.