INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY 101: COPYRIGHT, FAIR USE, AND MORE

The world of intellectual property is very complicated– including copyright and Creative Commons. These would fall under digital literacy, which we know our students, and really everyone needs. Let’s explore links that break down the main terms for various media. It is important to understand the different types of attribution and when to use it.

A Quick Disclaimer

Although the sites provided below allow for “free” use of their works, always check the FAQs. Some of these are free for individuals, non-publishing, or non-commercial. However, you will have to purchase a license if you decide to use works for business, commercial, or other means (publicly or for monetization, for example). Lastly, at any point, if you see a watermark, do not use the work, as this indicates it is copyrighted material. Other stock photo sites will use their watermark (such as Shutterstock). 

Important Terms

U.S. Copyright

Copyright is a license covered by U.S. law that protects intellectual property and authorship of different works of art and media. With copyright protection, the author/creator/developer can enforce how their content is distributed, shared, used, and monetized. Material, whether art, media, or other, does not have to be published. Copyright is the strictest license and can lead to fines. It can be legally enforced. A recent case out of Houston revealed a violation of copyright. In order to use any copyrighted material, you need to write for permission from the author for Use. Also, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) falls under this category and the TEACH Act for online learning.

Fair Use

Under Copyright law, there is Fair Use Doctrine. Fair Use allows for copyrighted material to be used under specific circumstances such as scholarship and teaching without acquiring the necessary permission. There are restrictions such as protection for the teacher, not the students. Also, depending on the material or work being used or replicated, there are restrictions on how much can be used. For instance, if you want to share a book with your class, you can. But you are limited to around 10% of the total work. This ensures using these materials for teaching purposes and not for creation, publication, assignments, or other reasons.

Creative Commons USA

Creative Commons is a kind of license that is open and flexible. This means that media licensed under Creative Commons is more available to share and reproduce by others. This kind of license provides broader, less-restrictive permissions. Creative Commons was quickly developed in the digital age to respond to people who wanted to share their work. Several attribution licenses are associated with Creative Commons, so be sure to check those out before sharing. The key concept to remember is that we should be looking toward OPEN availability in this digital age– just like Open Educational Resources (OERs), access, and media.

Public Domain

Public domain refers to materials or works that do not have copyright protection. This could happen for a couple of reasons, such as the work being created before the existence of copyright law or the copyright protection on the work has expired. For instance, anything published prior to 1925 is now open to all (unless copyright has been extended). If you are interested in an exciting story, the happy birthday song we all sing went through some public domain/copyright problems. It has been in the public domain since 2017.

Other Examples of Public Domain Works: 

• Project Gutenberg: 60,000+ downloadable eBooks (expired copyright)

• Metropolitan Museum of Art: more than 400,000 images

• Prelinger Archives: public domain films

Royalty Free

When works are used and no royalties need to be paid, they are considered royalty free. But be careful, as royalty free does not mean free to use or not copyrighted. For example, you may have to pay for the license but not the royalties.

Stock Images

Music

• Bensound: Bensound.com was created by Benjamin TISSOT also know as Bensound, a Composer and Musician based in France who has been creating music for more than 10 years. You can use  the music on his website for free, but he asks that you mention bensound.com in your project.
  
  

• Find Sounds: Need a quick way to find sounds for use in a podcast or as part of a presentation? FindSounds takes the trouble out of locating a repository of copyright-fee sounds. Use it to find sounds for anything from a dog barking to a blue whale. Besides a single search box you can use “à la Google”, you can find sounds by type.
  
  

• Free Music Archive:  Free Music Archive (FMA), founded in 2009 by radio station WFMU, offers free access to open licensed, original music. Historically, radio has always offered the public free access to new music. So with the help of curators, netlabels and thousands of independent musicians around the world FMA became a continuation of that purpose. Tens of millions of visitors every month download music for personal use and many share and remix music from FMA in videos, podcasts, films, games, apps and even school projects.
  
  

• FreePlay Music: Freeplay Music is one of the most trusted production music libraries in the world.  With a wide variety of high-quality music and world-class customer service, we have clients from all over the world who use our music in everything from personal web videos to major network television broadcasts and major feature films.  In addition to the music that we provide to our clients, Freeplay Music also has been at the forefront of innovations in the music industry since its inception in 2001. In 2013 Freeplay Music entered into an agreement with YouTube that revolutionizes how people use music and videos on the internet.  Under this new agreement, all the tracks in the Freeplay Music library will be FREE for use on YouTube (personal use only).
  
  

• Premium Beat:  PremiumBeat, a Shutterstock company, provides exclusive, high-quality tracks and sound effects for use in new and traditional media projects, including videos, films, apps, games, and television programming.
  
  

• Purple Planet: Purple Planet Music is a collection of music written and performed by Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey. You are welcome to use the pieces for free. We simply ask you credit us. We are supported by users who kindly purchase commercial licenses. This helps us to keep creating music. It also gives you a written license and higher quality WAV file and means you don't have to credit us.
  
  

• Tabletop Audio: Tabletop Audio is the premier, advertising free / free-to-use, user supported ambient game audio site on the web. While it was originally developed as a resource for players and GMs of tabletop role-playing games, I have received so many emails from other types of users that I felt it was time to refine this section. On the main page, you will find more than 300 10-minute, situational audio files called ambiences (over 24 hours!). Press play. Listen. For more control over your audio, try one of the SoundPads.
  
  

• WolframTones: From the same people that brought us the great computational search engine Wolfram Alpha comes Wolfram Tones. Wolfram Tones uses algorithms, music theory, and sound samples to generate new collections of sounds. Visitors to Wolfram Tones can experiment with sounds and rhythms to make their own sounds. Wolfram Tones allows visitors to choose samples from fifteen different genres of music on which to build their own sounds. Once a genre is selected visitors can then alter the rhythms, instrumentation, and pitch mapping of their sounds. When satisfied with their creations, users can download their sounds or have them sent directly to their cell phones.
  
  

• YouTube Royalty-Free Music: Need background music for your videos? Well YTRFM offers free copyright music that you can use. Free downloads for content creators, filmmakers and montage editors. Their music library consist of a non-copyrighted music from various artists. Please, see the description of each track for compliance with the terms of use.

Images

• Britannica ImageQuest: Britannica ImageQuest is a database of over three million images from top international collections which have been rights-cleared. Each photo or illustration comes with complete metadata, including the source, the copyright holder, a caption, and keywords. (Click here for TexQuest Login Information)
  
  

• Google Advanced Image Search: Teach your students how to use this powerful tool. It gives you enormous flexibility in tailoring your search results. In addition to specifying the image’s color, size, and file type, you can choose Filter Explicit Results to block inappropriate pictures. You can also specify the usage rights to include various levels of reprint permissions. Once you have set the parameters, a search bar will appear. Fill in your search terms and note that the toolbar at the top of the window shows your image preferences for that search. You can easily adjust these settings for a new search using the toolbar’s drop-down menus.

Videos