Communication

• Copyright Law of the United States

• Digital Millennium Copyright Act (PDF)

Quick links:

• The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education

• Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Multimedia (University of Washington)

Quick Access Guides:

• LNDL Copyright Research Guide:  Guide is designed to help explain U.S. Copyright laws and how they apply to basic copyright questions that arise in the course of academic work.
• A Fair(y) Use Tale by Eric Faden, Associate Professor of Film/Media Studies, Bucknell University: Video on copyright created using clips from Disney films under fair use.
• The Center for  Media and Social Impact: American University's Center for  Media and Social Impact provides a plethora of copyright information including tutorials and best practices.
• Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States (PDF): Provides a chart of what items are in the public domain or under copyright based on the creation and publication dates.
• Creative Commons: The Creative Commons site provides detailed information on the various Creative Commons licenses and people and organizations using Creative Commons licensing.
• Fair Use Worksheet: A worksheet to help walk you through an analysis of whether or not your use of copyrighted material falls under fair use.

General Media:

• Creative Commons Search: A search tool providing an easy search for Creative Commons licensed works on popular sites.

• morgueFile: Free public domain photographs. No attribution is required.

• PicsRLearning.com: Images are free to use for classrooms, multimedia projects, web sites, videos, portfolios, or any other project in an educational setting.

Historical Media:

• American Memory Project: Contains images, music, videos and other primary resources regarding American History. Maintained by the Library of Congress. All materials from this resource are considered to be in the public domain.

• Free Music Archive: Contains free music that you can download from a wide range of genres. Not all music on this site is in the public domain. Read the licensing information associated with the song you want to use.

• Prelinger Archives: Contains videos from 1927 to 1987. All videos are in the public domain and free to download and use.

• Smithsonian Collections Search Center: Search over 8.6 million catalog records with 1,200,000 images, video and sound files, electronic journals and other resources from the Smithsonian's museums, archives & libraries. Be sure to check each image or record for copyright restrictions.

• Internet Archive: Contains free downloadable images, music, audio, and primary source documents. Check each item's copyright information to see if it is in the public domain.

• National Archives: Archival Research Catalog: Use to find historical images. Most images in the public domain, but check each image for copyright restrictions.

• Library of Congress Prints and Photographs: Use to find historical digital images. Most images in the public domain, but check each image for copyright restrictions.

• FDR Library Digitized Historical Photographs: Contains photographs of the Great Depression, World War II, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. All images are in the public domain.

• Life Archive Photo Archive hosted by Google: Finds photographs from the Life archives from 1750 to present. Images are not in the public domain. Use the Fair Use Factors when deciding whether to use images from this site.

• Duke University Libraries Advertising Collections: Contains historic print and television advertising. Most items are not in the public domain. Use the Fair Use Factors when deciding whether to use images from this site.