Scenario: A student wants to post a photo from Fox Broadcasting
Company (FBC) website for an online review on your student newspaper. Is this
considered an infringement of the copyright law?
Well, according to LoMonte, it depends.
If the review is for a show that is produced by FBC and the photo is accompanying a review of that show, then
it is covered under fair use.
However, if the photo is used for any other reason than a
review of the show then the photo is not covered under fair use.
There are some examples of media sites, such as the FBC website, where they openly allow downloads from their
website, or have a “commons” area where photos are shared with the public. Pictured right is an example of a the page for the actor Mark Salling as Puck from the “Glee”
show on the FBC website.
If you scroll down the page, you see a “download”
section with several options. In this case, FBC is promoting this show by
allowing the photos of the actors to be downloaded.
Here is a quick reference guide I put together with a few websites you can and cannot
use content from for student publications. Please comment if you have
additions or modifications.
Fair use. . .
- · a photo from a movie or TV show’s official website to accompany a review of the movie or TV show
- · a photo of the entire album cover to accompany a review of the album
- · a photo from a “common” area of a media website that states it is openly shared
- · .gov websites: examples include
o
usa.gov
o
images.fws.gov
o
photolib.noaa.gov
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
o
nlm.nih.gov (National Library of Medicine)
o
nasa.gov (NASA)
o
imaging.cancer.gov (National Cancer Institute)
o
mypyramid.gov (Department of Agriculture)
- · public domain image websites - examples include:
- · anything on Wikimedia commons; a database of “freely usable media files”
- · anything on a website where the policy is clearly stated that uploaded photos are waived of copyright, such as www.copyright-free-images.com
Don’t touch. . .
- · Reuters
- · AP
- · Disney
- · breaking news or local news websites
- · any website where they make money off of their photos
Linda Hopson
Adviser, Three Penny Press
Bellaire High School
Thank you, Linda. This is a list I will refer to. I appreciate all the help you teachers give me.
ReplyDeleteDon't touch any photographer's website or national chain photography either (like Sears).
Ryan Peacock
Tooele High School
Tooele, Utah
I also love Stock Exchange www.sxc.hu for great high quality stock photos and illustrations. It's free. You just have to sign up for an account.
ReplyDeleteThis is a huge help--thanks, Donna. As a former entertainment editor, I also will say that it is very easy to get PR photos of most bands through their public relations people or labels. One trick to locating these is a simple Google search for artist name + PR or label or something along those lines. Once you figure out the right company, if you can find an e-mail extension (e.g. @umusic.com, @wbr.com) then you can find a contact person pretty quickly.
ReplyDelete