❝ The copyright bargain: a balance between protection for the artist and rights for the consumer ❞ - Robin Gross

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I know that the first 3 chapters have barely anything to do with graphic tips. But I feel like getting the legal things out first is important.

If you continue blindly editing without precaution and you one day sell these graphics, you can get sued or even worse, go to jail.

This is why knowing the copyright rules and terms are very important as a graphic designer.

Terminologies

Copyright - According to Kenton (2019), it is the legal right of the owner of intellectual property. It is the right to copy. This means that the original creators of the products and anyone they give authorization to are the only ones with the exclusive right to reproduce the work.

Stock photo services require you to pay for a license

Creative commons licenses confer the right to use an image under certain circumstances

Public domain images are not subject to copyright in the first place.

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⚠️ IMPORTANT!

• Copyright Law protects creators of original material from unauthorized duplication or use.

• For an original work to be copyright laws, it has to be in tangible (a thing that is perceptible by touch) form.

• Copyright is an automatic right and does not require the author to file special paperwork,

• In the US, the work of the creators is protected by copyright laws until 70 years after their death. In the Philippines, it's 50 years after their death. In Germany, they also follow 70 years after their death (submitted by NiaGraphics). I don't know for other countries. You can comment it inline here.

• Examples of unique creations include computer software, art, poetry, graphic designs, musical lyrics and compositions, novels, film, original architectural designs, website content, etc. One safeguard that can be used to protect an original creation is copyright.

• Not all types of work can be copyrighted. A copyright does not protect ideas, discoveries, concepts, and theories. Brand names, logos, slogans, domain names, and titles also cannot be protected under copyright law. For an original work to fall under creation, it has to be in tangible form. This means that any speech, discoveries, musical scores, or ideas have to be written down in physical form in order to be protected by copyright.

• According to Hawkins (2011), Copyright laws were established not to give the author the right to deny their work to other people, but instead to encourage its creation.

Article I, Section 8, clause 8, of the United States Constitution states the purpose of copyright laws is “to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

• The copyright owner has the right to do four things(called exclusive rights):

Reproduce the copyrighted work;

Display the copyrighted work publicly;

 Prepare derivative works based on the copyrighted work; and

Distribute copies of the copyrighted work to the public by sale, rental or lending, and/or to display the image.

Source: 17 USC Section 106.

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5 Things to think about before using Copyrighted Images
(Inspired by Sara Hawkins, November 23, 2011)

❶ Understand the term "fair use". Just because you provide attribution and/or a link back to the original doesn’t mean you’re free and clear. Fair use has nothing to do with attribution. That’s an issue related to plagiarism, which is different from copyright.

Fair use basically means you’re allowed to infringe on someone’s copyright and they can’t do anything about it. If your use is covered by fair use, you don’t have to provide attribution anyway (although it would be nice).

❷ Why are you using the image? If it is for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (making multiple copies to hand out to a class), scholarship or research then there is no problem.

If you are only using it to pretty a post, you have to consider using a stock image or asking permission.

❸ Have you transformed the image? If the new work which incorporates the copyrighted image is a “transformative work”—what you created no longer resembles the original—there is a greater likelihood of finding an exception to copyright infringement.

Are you taking an image and incorporating it into an infographic? Is the image now part of a video used for one of the reasons set forth in the Copyright Act?

❹ How much of the image are you using? If you’re using a thumbnail and linking to the original location, there is greater likelihood of finding fair use than if you just post the original image. If you’re doing a post about facial features and are just using a portion of the face from an image, you stand a better chance of arguing fair use than if you used the entire image.

❺ Are you willing to risk your site being taken down? Getting a cease and desist/bill/DMCA or being sued? The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) provides very powerful options for a copyright owner to protect his or her works in the digital space. By hitting “publish,” you may be opening a can of worms

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How to ensure that the pictures you are using are okay to use without permission?

If you remember this picture in the previous chapter? 👇

Here is what was placed below it...

Further down below, it also has the liscense information 👇

This photo above is from Pexels. To be sure that the picture you are using is free to use, I recommend using Pexels and Unsplash.

However, if you are using Copyleft sites like Pinterest and WeHeartIt. Make sure that you try to not use the image itself only. Edit as much as possible or crop as much as you can.

If you are using Google, you can check under the Image search bar...

Note: According to NiaGraphics, "labelled for reuse" is often tricky since there still might be cc (creative commons) or other copyright laws on the picture so it's always important to check the website.

P.S. Thank you Nia for the extra tip. Do check her graphics out. They are amazing.

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▎If you have more tips and information about copyright that you want to share to, comment inline here! ▎

▎Questions can go here! ▎

▎Corrections and mistakes you spot, can go here! Don't be shy. It's better to let me know than keeping it to yourself ▎