Copyright is the legal protection that creators have over the things they create. It is illegal to use other people's copyrighted writing, music, pictures, videos, or artwork without permission or citing them.

You may use work that is in the public domain, which is creative work that is not copyrighted and free to use without permission.

Alternatively, you may use creative work if it falls under fair use, which is the ability to use copyrighted work without permission, but only in certain ways and specific situations.

4 Factors of Fair Use:

• the amount used is only a small portion of the original work or does not include the "heart" of the work.

• the purpose of the new work is educational or the original work is transformed into something very different.

• the nature of the original work is nonfiction or based on fact (rather than creative or fictional).

• the effect of the new work does not include any negative impact on the creator or the value of the original work (think $!).