Copyright Friendly Images
Your students need to have an image for that multimedia project. How do you get it? How many times do they go to Google Images, right click, download, and import into their works?

Is this OK? Does it respect the originator's copyright? The answer is no.

The best bet is to get your own camera or draw program and create your own. That extends the project and puts a creative bent towards it. Whenever possible, that's the best way to go.

Where do you turn when you can't create your own and you do want something that's copyright friendly?

http://creativecommons.org/ is a site devoted to promoting the free and ethical sharing of comment. Using the search feature at the site allows you access to resources that are suitable for your purpose

Here, I'm searching for "House" on Flickr looking for resources that are ok for "modify, adapt, or build upon" purposes.

When I find one that's going to meet my needs, I click on the image to get the original. From there, I can save the image and bring it into my works.

Of course, I need to give proper reference to the work. By checking the terms of the Creative Commons license, I get the details about how I can use it and, conveniently, a proper attribution link.

In this way, we are respecting the author's original work and giving credit appropriately.


Not only does this do the right thing for the works of others, it's a good lesson for students who are creating their own works. If they're posting their content to the web, they should consider what type of copyright to assign to it. If the intent is to allow others to use their works, they should apply their own Creative Commons license.

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