ENG 317 - Professional Writing

Instruction & Outreach Librarian

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Cory Budden
she/her
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Contact:
Nottage Library
Bangor Campus
207-262-7893

Various media

Use these sites to find free--but not necessarily copyright free--images online.

  • Google Image Search
    Find "Free-to-use" (hopefully) images. Try to use the "tools" menu to find what you are looking for.
  • CreativeCommons Search
    Search multiple sources for images and media, including Google, Flickr, Wikimedia Commons & more.
  • Flickr
    This online image storage and presentation tool allows users to limit their advanced searches to images shared under Creative Commons licenses.

     
  • Compfight
    Compfight is an image search engine tailored to efficiently locate images for blogs, comps, inspiration, and research. We make good use of the flickr™ API, but aren't affiliated with flickr.
  • Wikimedia
    "A media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone."
  • Google Art Project
    "Explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share your own collection of masterpieces."

     
  • New York Public Library's (NYPL) Digitized Collections
    "This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more."

     
  • Library of Congress Digital Collections
    You can do a keyword search using the search bar at the top of the page, or browse images using the limiters on the left sidebar.

Creative Commons and Fair Use

What is Creative Commons?
Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world. We unlock the full potential of the internet to drive a new era of development, growth and productivity.

With a network of staff, board, and affiliates around the world, Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to make a simple and standardized way to give the public permission to share and use your creative work–on conditions of your choice.

Fair Use is an exemption to the rights of copyright holders.

The Four Factors

"Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair. See the Columbia University checklist (Crews and Buttler) (right corner) to see how to apply these factors.

  1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

  2. the nature of the copyrighted work; (fiction/creative or nonfiction/factual)

  3. amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

  4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."

from the U.S. Copyright Office http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

FAQs

Is Fair Use a law?

Yes, Fair Use is codified in Title 17, Section 107 of the U.S. Code.

Is Fair Use only for educators?

No, fair use applies to everyone, nonprofit and commercial users alike. There are, however, certain privileges for educational uses.

Is all educational use "fair use?"

No.

What are some examples of ways copyrighted works can be used under the  fair use exemption?

You can use small portions of a copyrighted work to comment and illustrate a point, report news, do research or scholarship, criticism or parody.

How much of a work can I use safely?

There are no amounts or percentages in the law. If you have heard of percentages, those most likely come from guidelines developed over the years by groups like CONFU, but these percentages are not written into the law. When using copyrighted work, use the least amount necessary. Although the law does not specify any amounts, copyright scholars seem comfortable with approximately 10% of a work. If however you have chosen the "heart of the work," a much smaller amount might fail the fair use test. The "heart of the work" of a book might be the pages with the key turning point of a story or the revealing motivation for a person's action. For a song, it might be the 4 second refrain that is recognized worldwide, across generations.

You may have more leeway with amount when you are creating a parody.

What is transformative use?

Think of this along with your first fair use factor. The nature of the use may be commercial or nonprofit, and nonprofit uses are always considered more favorably. But your use may be more than that.  If what you do with the copyrighted work adds new meaning, brings new value, or repurposes a work, you have transformed it beyond its original use. The problem with transformative work is that you may think a use is transformative, but the judge may not. It is not always predictable. 

Stanford University has some examples to illustrate successful and unsuccessful transformative work.

How do I apply Fair Use in the classroom or in my distance education class?

For class handouts in a face to face classroom, see the tab marked "Classroom Guidelines."

For the use of performance and display in classrooms using digital transmissions (Brightspace, Moodle, etc), see thef TEACH Act.

What's new with Fair Use?

Professional communities of practice are beginning to issue best practices for interpreting Fair Use. Some of these are:

 Our thanks to the librarians at the University of Missouri--Kansas City for allowing UMA to reuse this text!

Accessibility Statement
The University provides reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities upon request. Any person with a disability who needs accommodations for a workshop should contact UMA Libraries at uma.library@maine.edu to submit a request. Due to the lead-time needed to arrange certain accommodations, individuals should submit their request no later 1 week before the event.