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Intellectual Property: Copyright, Trademark, Patents, and Fair Use

This guide provides access to resources and tools relating to copyright and trademark resources

Fair Use of Images

This Statement on the Fair Use of Images for Teaching, Research, and Study describes six uses of copyrighted still images that the Visual Resources Association (www.vraweb.org) believes fall within the U.S. doctrine of fair use.

The following six uses are:

  1. Use of images for in-class use.

  2. Use of images (both large, high-resolution images and thumbnails) on password protected course websites and in other platforms restricted to students and faculty at CSI (such as Blackboard).

  3. Adaptation of images for teaching and classroom work by students.

  4. Sharing images among educational and cultural institutions to facilitate teaching and study.

  5. Reproduction of images in theses and dissertations.

  6. Preservation (storing images for repeated use in a teaching context and transferring images to new formats).

Consider these five variables when determining the fair use of images:

  1. The copyright status of the underlying work represented in the image.

  2. The copyright status of the photographic reproduction.

  3. The specific source from which you have obtained the image under consideration.

  4. Any terms of use or contract that may govern the uses of the image

  5. The intended use(s) of the image.

The Digital Image Rights Computator created by the Visual Resources Association can help you do this too.

Using Open Access Images

You are free to use images taken from the public domain, licensed by the Creative Commons, or free of most copyright restrictions in multimedia projects, websites, blogs, portfolios, etc., that are open and available to the public.

However, even if images are in the public domain, there may be a few restrictions to their use. These are usually attribution requirements. *** Always read and comply with the use restrictions for specific image sources.  ***  Always cite images someone else created.

Check out some of these image resources.

Using Images from Library Databases

The Images for Academic Publishing (IAP) program makes available publication-quality images for use in scholarly publications free of charge. To find IAP images, simply add "IAP" to your search criteria. An icon reading "IAP" is located directly beneath the thumbnail image in your search results.

United States Government Websites
In general, most images on all U.S. government web sites (.gov) are in the public domain and free for you to use and share on a public website or blog, etc.. However, some restrictions may apply so make sure you review the policies of the individual sites for this information. 

image from the Library of Congress Prints and Photgraphs Reading Room

Migrant mother, Dorothea Lange, photograph, 1936.

The Library of Congress Print and Photographs Online Catalog contains access to millions of digital images including photographs, fine and popular prints and drawings, posters, and architectural and engineering drawings. While international in scope, the collections are particularly rich in materials produced in, or documenting the history of, the United States and the lives, interests and achievements of the American people.