Copyright and Fair Use for Images and Media
Using someone else's images and media requires consideration of copyright, just like printed material. In academic situations, use of non-print material can still follow Fair Use guidelines. The issue of determining a rights-holder can be more complicated with images and media, but it is still a necessary step to avoid infringement. The tabbed boxes in this section will provide tips and helpful resources to help you make an informed decision.
Copyright and Images
- Use your own images.
- Find other images that are public domain or include licensing that allows you to edit or reuse them. Here is a helpful link from Harvard University for finding and using them.
- Look for images that allow you to pay for using them (least desirable!).
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Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for the Visual ArtsBased on a consensus of professionals in the visual arts who use copyrighted images, texts, and other materials in their creative and scholarly work and who, through discussion groups, identified best practices for using such materials.
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DIRC Digital Image Rights ComputatorIntended to assist the user in assessing the intellectual property status of a specific image.
Public Domain Images
- U.S. National Archives Flickr pool
- The Public Domain Review
- Wikipedia’s public domain image resources page
Licensed Images:
Resources for licensing information:
- Creative Commons Licensing
- Google Reverse Image Search
- Flickr Creative Commons
- New York Public Library Digital Collections
- Library of Congress
- Art Images for College Teaching
- Unsplash
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Artstor This link opens in a new window
Artstor is a digital library of nearly one million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.
The Artstor website retired on August 1, 2024. Artstor is now available on JSTOR.
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Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
This collection of primary and secondary source materials offers access to comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide, from 1900 to 2010. The collection includes multiple media formats and content types for each selected event or human rights theme, including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and more than 30 additional subjects. Resources for each theme or event guide users through the full scope of the event, from the historical context that made such violations possible through the international response, prosecution of perpetrators, and steps toward rebuilding. The collection will continue to grow to include 75,000 pages of text and 150 hours of video.
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Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Art Online is an innovative new gateway that offers users the ability to access and search the vast content of Grove Art Online and Oxford art reference in one location.
Copyright and Video
- Create your own videos with help from Information Technology Services' Media Lab.
- Find videos that are freely available for use and often re-use as public domain titles or video content licensed by Creative Commons through the Resources Tab in this box.
TED Talks - These short videos include quality multi-disciplinary, multi-interest topics that can be shown according to their copyright and use guidelines on this site.
Moving Image Archive (Internet Archive) - This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts.These videos are typically in the public domain or are available with Creative Commons reuse rights. Many of the videos are available for free download.
Wikimedia Commons - Videos in Wikimedia Commons are freely licensed and are either available in the public domain or through Creative Commons licensing.
YouTube - Video content on YouTube often provides users with the ability to reuse the content. After searching for content, filter by Creative Commons to find content that is licensed for re-use. The publishing information box underneath the video contains the Creative Commons license assigned.
Internet Movie Database (IMDB) - This link provides a list of movies that are available in the public domain, as of 2012.
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Energy, Science, and Technology Information Resources This link opens in a new window
Includes scientific and technical information resources of the Department of Energy's Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI) in broad disciplines such as physics, chemistry, materials, biology, engineering, energy efficiency, and other related subject areas. Resources include tools for cross searching bibliographic citations, full-text technical reports, preprints, and journals citations residing in multiple databases and Web sites.
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Human Rights Studies Online This link opens in a new window
This collection of primary and secondary source materials offers access to comparative documentation, analysis, and interpretation of major human rights violations and atrocity crimes worldwide, from 1900 to 2010. The collection includes multiple media formats and content types for each selected event or human rights theme, including Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Darfur, and more than 30 additional subjects. Resources for each theme or event guide users through the full scope of the event, from the historical context that made such violations possible through the international response, prosecution of perpetrators, and steps toward rebuilding. The collection will continue to grow to include 75,000 pages of text and 150 hours of video.
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Kanopy This link opens in a new window
Find movies, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films and educational videos that you can watch on your TV, mobile phone, tablets and online.
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Opera in Video This link opens in a new windowA collection that contains five hundred hours of the most important opera performances, captured on video through staged productions, interviews, and documentaries.
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Psychotherapy.net This link opens in a new windowPsychotherapy.net offers inspiring and informative counseling and therapy videos. Over the last 20 years we have produced or licensed 246 videos that meet the highest standard of quality and relevance to clinicians and educators and made them all available online - anytime, anywhere. The collection is searchable by keyword, expert, therapeutic issue, and client population. Web tools like clip making, interactive running transcripts, smart keyword search, and downloadable instructor's manuals empower users to easily explore, present, and share our videos with colleagues, students, or interns - responding adaptively to unique teaching and training needs.
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PubMed This link opens in a new window
PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 18 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s.
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Sage Research Methods Video This link opens in a new window
Sage Research Methods Video (quick start guide) offers over 480 streaming videos which cover every aspect of the research process and hundreds of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.
Public performance rights for screening existing videos are a copyright concern for all members of the university community.
These rights are typically not necessary for in-class, instructional use of any video format, as classroom use of videos usually falls under the fair use doctrine. Videos acquired or subscribed to by Copley Library are primarily intended for in-class, instructional use.
All non-instructional screenings of existing videos that do not occur in a home-use setting REQUIRE public performance rights consideration. Violation of copyright for public screening of videos constitutes a serious concern for the university. Contact copyright@sandiego.edu for guidance at least 3 weeks before your intended screening.
The use of video formats for online courses requires additional consideration and does not automatically fall under fair use. Contact copyright@sandiego.edu for information on those video applications as well.
Public Domain Video:
Licensed Video:
Securing Public Performance Rights for films:
Copyright and Audio
- Create your own sounds, using free, open-source, cross-platform software like Audacity®.
- Use freely-available audio files from the Internet. See the Resources tab in this box for ideas.
- Musopen offers royalty free music covering a range of composers, instruments, and periods.
- Free Music Archive "is an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads directed by WFMU, the most renowned freeform radio station in America."
- SoundBible.com offers royalty free sound effects.
- ccMixter "promotes remix culture and makes samples, remixes, and a cappella tracks licensed under Creative Commons available for download and re-use in creative works."
- Freesound.org "is a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds. Browse, download and share sounds."
This wiki has links to dozens of copyright-friendly music and sound sites, but always check individual licensing notices when using the links provided.
Consider Fair Use Factors- Public Domain
Creative Commons
- CC Mixter
- Jamendo (use advanced search limit to cc)
- Wikimedia Commons
- YouTube (navigate to YouTube Studio then Audio Library for music and sound effects)
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DRAM This link opens in a new windowA scholarly resource of recordings, including CD quality audio, liner notes and essays from New World, Composers Recordings and other important labels. The basis for the current collection is the diverse catalog of New World Records.
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Naxos Music Library This link opens in a new windowNaxos Music Library is the most comprehensive collection of classical music available online. It includes the complete Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues of over 170,000 tracks, including Classical music, Jazz, World, Folk and Chinese music.
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Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new windowOxford Music Online is a new gateway that offers users the ability, for the first time ever, to access and cross-search the vast resources of Oxford's music reference in one location. The gateway includes Grove Music Online, with access to search The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music
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Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries This link opens in a new window
Music Online: Smithsonian Global Sound for Libraries produced in partnership with Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, is a virtual encyclopedia of the world's musical and aural traditions. The collection provides educators, students, and interested listeners with an unprecedented variety of online resources that support the creation, continuity, and preservation of diverse musical forms.
