Knowing whether you can legally use a work or not can be tricky. One problem is that there is not a clear cut rule for determining copyright. There are a lot of factors, including:
Date of the original publication: Copyright is not forever. Once copyright expires, the work then moves into the public domain where it can be used freely without permission. Unfortunately, the date copyright expires depends on several factors. For works published in 1978-current, copyright often is 70 years after the author's death. See the public domain chart for more.
How the work is going to be use: In most cases, you can use copyrighted works for educational purposes under Fair Use as long as you give credit to the original owner. You can also use copyrighted works for criticism, commentary, news, parody and archival purposes.
Who created the work: Some works, such as most works created by the federal government, are automatically in the public domain. This means you can use the work (again, make sure you give credit). Also, the rules for "works for hire" are different than normal copyright. If an artist creates an image for a company, it is the company, not the artist, that owns the copyright. Finally in some cases, creators willing give up copyright and publish an open access license, such as Creative Commons, that allows their content to be used without permission.
Fair use allows copyrighted works to be used without permission in instances of "public interest" -- that is, in research, teaching, criticism, commentary, satire, news reporting and library archiving. Now, this does not mean that you can use an entire work and claim fair use. There are guidelines to follow:
How the work is being used -- Are you using the work for commercial or educational purposes? Are you turning the assignment in to just the teacher or are you distributing the work to the whole class? It should be obvious that using an image for commercial use or to distribute does not count as fair use.
Nature of the work -- Ideas and facts are public domain. In some cases, public interest and social usefulness will trump copyright.
Amount of the work used -- Are you quoting a passage in an article or using the whole article? Are you using a still from a film or the whole film? While there may be cases where you can safely use an entire piece, the less you use, the more likely it will be considered fair use.
Effect on the original -- Does your use effect the value or demand for the original piece? You can't use a piece in any way that will negatively effect the original work or copyright owner.
As you can see, even with the above guidelines, fair use isn't clear. In most cases, you should be able to use copyrighted images in your assignments as long as you are not publishing or distributing the image, claiming the image as your own, selling the image, or altering the image in a way that lessens the market for the original image.
That said, make sure to credit the original creator and, when possible, contact them to get permission. Neither I nor the library can be responsible if you infringe on copyright.
Public domain refers to works that have had their copyright expired, given up, or that copyright doesn't apply to (such as government publications). Works in the public domain can be freely used without permission. This chart shows the expiration date for most copyrighted items based on authorship and year of publication:
| Date of Publication | Conditions | Copyright Term |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1929 | Expired. All pre-1929 works are public domain. | |
| 1929 - 1989 | Published without copyright notice | Public domain |
| 1929 - 1963 | Published with copyright notice, but copyright not renewed | Expired |
| 1929 - 1963 | Published with copyright notice and copyright renewed | 95 years after publication date |
| 1964 - 1977 | Published with copyright notice | 95 years after publication date |
| 1978 - current | Published with copyright notice | 70 years after death of author. If corporate author, 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation, whichever comes first. |
| 1978 - current | More than one author | 70 years after death of last living author |
| 1978 - current | Anonymous or pseudonymous works | 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation, whichever comes first. |
| Anytime | Government publications | None. Public domain. |
