Copyright &

Visual Materials
Anna Jonsson
Mike Harmala
Kensey Wang
What can you copyright?

From Copyright Act of 1976:

pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;

motion pictures and other audiovisual works;

Categories are vague

The idea behind copyright is to preserve and

encourage innovation & new ways of expression

Original expression is key to copyright

How work becomes copyrighted

Created in a tangible form

&
The work is original
Copyright Owner Rights

  Replicate it

  Create derivative works from it

  Distribute it

  Display / Perform it
Fair Use

It’s not a right, but it’s a defense for violators of

“exclusive rights”
Defining ownership

The author owns it, unless they work for hire

Owners can transfer rights to anyone

The Public Domain

It’s intellectual property not owned by anyone so

you can use it as much as you want

Anything
before 1923 is © Expires:
public
Life of author +
70 years
Licensing

Copyright holders can grant permission to use

works under certain conditions
Creative Commons

Conditions can be mixed to create your license

Flickr
Restricted: work is protected and only viewable at
small resolutions

Creative Commons: people are allowed to take

work and use it depending on the license
declared by the user
 Copyright Violation?

  Issues of copyright, not   News reporting

privacy protected under
copyright exceptions?
Is This Fair Use?
Shepard Fairey versus the Associated Press 
Creating Designs Similar to
Existing Ones
 ImageRights International

Visual search and image recognition

technology to track photograph use

Clients upload to the system – system

provides detailed weekly report

Imagerights.com
What designers do to get
images and visual material
When acquiring images, a designer needs to be
aware of the difference between royalty free
and rights managed visual materials.
 A firm or designer might…

…hire a photographer, or they purchase stock

imagery from a place like Getty Images.
Royalty Free

Once you have rights to a royalty free image, you

can use it many times for certain uses without
paying further fees.
Rights Managed

Can only use once for the specified purpose. Price

changes by quantity and level of visibility.
Logs

If you work a large firm, the firm will have policies

about this. The firm will also have people who
work full-time tracking the images used. They will
keep image logs that record image credits for
acknowledgement. This is because it's easy for
image owners to sue large firms for infringement.

The lesson to take away from this: keep track of

the images you use, including credits. Keep a
log.
For our purposes, some more
sites that make CC-licensed
images available:
Morguefile

http://www.morguefile.com/
Wikimedia Commons

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Dreasmtime

Low-cost, royalty-free stock images

http://www.dreamstime.com/
Getty Images

Getty is "the leading provider of digital media

worldwide, creating and distributing a range of
assets – from royalty-free stock photography and
editorial images to footage, music and
multimedia – that help communicators around
the globe tell their stories."
Getty Search Engine
Getty Help Desk

800 IMAGERY (800 462 4379)

Guide to copyright from Getty

http://gettyimages.tekgroup.com/images/59/
Copyright101.pdf