So I found a really cool photo online that I want to use in my own project. Can I just go ahead and do that?

WAIT! Just because you found something while looking around online doesn’t necessarily mean you can use it any way you want, if at all. Have you checked its copyright status?

Have I checked the what?

Copyright status. It refers to the legal power that the creator of something has to determine who – if anyone – is allowed to use, share, or reproduce the thing that they created. (Technically, it’s a property right. And like most property rights, it can be transferred or loaned to other people who then become the new copyright holders or licensees.)

I thought that just applied to using Disney characters and other famous stuff.

Nope! Pretty much anything that someone has put their own original thought or talent into might be subject to copyright. It doesn’t even need to have been published.

What do you mean “published”? It’s just someone’s family photo from a few decades ago that I found on an archive online. Why would that be copyrighted?

I’m not saying it’s definitely copyrighted, I’m just saying you need to check first. And “published” doesn’t necessarily mean published in a book or a magazine, it just refers to when something was distributed publicly, like putting up a poster or performing a play. But even something that was meant to be totally private can still be copyrighted, as long as someone put their own thought or talent into making it.

I’m pretty sure this is private, it’s just an old photo of someone’s family from like a hundred years ago.

Do you know who the photographer was? If so, depending how old the photo is, the copyright may have expired if they’ve been dead for 70 years.

No, I don’t know who the photographer is…

Well, is the photo very old? Because even if you don’t know the photographer, the copyright may have expired if its an unpublished work and it’s been 120 years since the photo was taken.

I have no idea how old it is, but I don’t think it’s that old –

OK, is there a section on the web page where you found the photo that talks about “copyright”?

I don’t know, I just see a photo. Where would I find that?

Well, every web page is different, so there isn’t necessarily one place you would definitely find it. But try scrolling down (or doing a CTRL+F search for “copyright”).

OK I’m scrolling down. Yeah there’s a bunch of fine print here that I didn’t really care about. Let’s see…

Look for a field called something like “Copyright” or “Usage.”

Oh wait, I found it! “This item protected by copyright and/or related rights.” Oh no! Does that mean I can’t use it after all?

Not necessarily. You could look up the copyright holder and ask for permission to use it, though that could take a long time and you don’t know what they’ll say. Plus, you may have to pay money for it.

Yeah, I don’t want to wait that long, plus I don’t have any money.

Well, there is another possibility. Depending on the type of project you’re doing and how you want to use this photo, you might still be able to use it under the doctrine of “fair use.”

Sweet, now we’re talking! But uh, what does that mean?

“Fair use” is a legal term describing circumstances under which a copyrighted image or other record can still be used without violating copyright.

That sounds complicated. How do I know if what I’m doing is fair use?

It’s not actually as complicated as it sounds. But unfortunately there’s isn’t a bright-line rule, either. The basic consideration is whether your use of the photo would realistically impact the market for other people to pay the photographer for the use of the photo. So, you may not be able to use the entire photo in your project, since other people could then just screengrab it from your project, but maybe you could just use a smaller part of the photo? Or maybe you’re planning on altering the photo in some fundamental way? (This is what’s called a “transformational” use). It also depends whether your project is commercial or not, as opposed to, say, educational. Not that you can’t ever have fair use in a commercial project, but it weighs against you. These are all factors to balance, rather than an absolute checklist.

I’d rather not deal with all that, plus I wanted to use the whole photo in my commercial documentary. I’d rather just look for another one. Let’s see… OK, here’s one that might work. I’ll scroll down and see what the copyright status is… Hmm, it says “this item is in the public domain.”

That’s great! It means you can use the photo in any way, without restriction.

Sweet! Let’s find another one just for good measure… Here’s another good one… Oh man, it says “made available for non-commercial, informational, and educational purposes under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.” What the heck does that mean?

It means that it’s under copyright, but the owner is allowing people to use it in their projects anyway, so long as the project is educational rather than commercial, the photo isn’t altered, and the photographer is given credit. People use Creative Commons or other kinds of licenses to let people use copyrighted images or records under certain terms of use.

Terms of what?

“Terms of use.” A lot of the images or other things you want to use might have a section underneath them titled “Usage” or “Terms of Use” that lists whether a copyrighted image is available for certain types of use. If you don’t see one, you can always go to the main page of whatever website you’re using and see if the entire website has a Terms of Use section.

I see a lot of these images have “CC” information, but I don’t recognize all the acronyms.

“CC” stands for Creative Commons. The other acronyms stand for the different kinds of licenses that the copyright holder is giving you. It’s a lot to memorize; you can use this website to quickly look them up.

This is all a lot to keep in mind.

Yes, that’s true. If you want to play it safe, a lot of sites where you search for images or other records allow you to filter the results by copyright status. Or you can use a database that you know is filled with public domain or Creative Commons-licensed materials, like the Public Domain Image Archive, Getty Open Content Program, the Prelinger Archive.

A Google search for “public domain images” or “Creative commons images” should give you a list of such sites — but still remember to double-check the copyright and terms of use on the individual image page or, failing that, the site-wide terms of use page!