Copyright & Fair Use for Education

A guide for faculty introducing copyright and fair use.

Using images in your class or presentation

Here are some simple tips for using images in your classes:

You should follow fair use guidelines if items are still held in copyright.
Always give credit to the original creator (if known) no matter the copyright status.
Always use alternative text for images to make sure the images are accessible.
There should be a notice in your syllabus noting that some of the images should not be downloaded or copied or printed beyond their permitted use.
Always read the usage restrictions or permissions page of the website you are using.

Find Public Domain Images

We recommend that you utilize the "Advanced Search" option on each of these websites to find images that you have permissions to use...

Wikimedia Commons
This is the repository for all the images used on wikipedia -- the majority of which can be reused following the individual licenses of the creators. There are over 34 million different images available on the site!
Pixabay
Pixabay is a community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. Many images are safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes. However, the site also includes images for purchase so be sure to double check use of the image is free.
Getty Open Content
The Getty Museum makes freely available all of the images to which they hold the rights or in the public domain. The Getty Search Gateway identifies open content images with a "Download" link.
FLIKR
FLIKR is an image sharing platform similar to what YouTube is for videos. Many of the images contained have Creative Commons licenses and can be used freely. Use the advanced search page to limit your search to those images without copyright issues.
NYPL Digital Gallery
Access the New York Public Library's vast collection of photographs, images and more. Many are available without copyright restrictions.
National Archives: Digital Photography Collection
The landing page to the photo collections of the National Archives. Includes thousands of photographs and images from around the country from different times in the nation's history.
Public Domain Project
A collection of historic images, audio, and news footage available for free use. You need to sign up for a an account to use. There are also paid images on the site.
PublicDomain Images.net
A crowd sourced image repository. User upload images to the site for others to use freely. There are a lot of nature, food, and family images available.
Library of Congress Digital Collections
The LOC has a vast collection of free to use images from American history. Includes items from advertising, American History, political cartoons, etc...

Galleries

National Gallery
You can search over 50000 images from the National Gallery of Art and use them free of charge. The search page allows you to limit to items in the Public Domain.
MET
The Metropolitan Museum of Art has made over 400,000 images of art works available to the public without restriction. you can search their collection and look for the "CC0" listing which indicates it is in the public domain.
British Library
The British Museum offers over 2 million images from their digital collection free of copyright restrictions (all items have a CC BY -- NC -- SA 4.0 license).
Getty Open Content
The Getty Museum makes freely available all of the images to which they hold the rights or in the public domain. The Getty Search Gateway identifies open content images with a "Download" link.

Prints, Photographs, and Posters

Library of Congress
Free to Use and reuse sets of images and phots from the Library of Congress. Includes topics such as cars, weddings, and maps.
Unspalsh
Over a million photographs provided free by professionals. Photos are curated and selected by humans so there is a level of quality not found on other sites.
National Archives: Digital Photography Collection
The landing page to the photo collections of the National Archives. Includes thousands of photographs and images from around the country from different times in the nation's history.
Free Classic Images
A wealth of worldwide images which are no longer in copyright. Includes images from cards, postcards, movie posters, pin-ups, autographs, etc...
NYPL Digital Gallery
Access the New York Public Library's vast collection of photographs, images and more. Many are available without copyright restrictions.