Dover Bookshop (London)
We use images in all our blog posts, despite being told search engine spiders prefer the written word. We say “To hell with the spiders”. We enjoy the sensory experience of a great image and believe images are useful communicators which can add to a post’s interest and effect. In a recent media survey, 63% of journalists who responded said visuals were “very important” to their stories. Only 10% said images were not important.
We try to use art and photographs that are in the public domain. [If we use copyrighted images we do so under the guiding principles of the "fair use" doctrine.] We attribute authorship when we know it. All works, visual or written, in the “public domain” are copyright free for everyone to use. So, how do you tell what’s in the public domain?
Under US copyright law, a public domain work is one which:
(1) has no copyright from inception. This includes any work of a federal government agency, such as court decisions, Census data, maps, laws, NASA photos, etc.. Use these hot off the press. Works made by non-humans also have no copyright protection. This includes the work of animals, machines (except computer programmed art), and certain statisticians.
Created by Congo the chimpanzee. Use it. The chimp can’t sue you.
(2) has an expired copyright. These include all published works before 1923 (from anywhere in the world). Use this useful chart by Peter Hirtle to determine when copyrights expire and enter the public domain.
(3) the author let fall into the public domain by not fulfilling some statutory formality. For example, works between 1923 and 1963 where only protected for 28 years, unless renewed. Four short films of The Three Stooges are in the public domain because a stooge forgot to renew the copyright. Also, works published before March 1, 1989 required a copyright notice or they fell into the public domain, unless later cured.
A Stooges’ classic in the Public Domain (”take off your hat, raise your right hand” and “judgy-wudgy” are Curly jems)
It’s not always easy to tell if an image was created before 1923 or has otherwise fallen into the public domain. Not to worry. There are many sources for copyright free images on the internet. Although there is no central listing of all public domain works, you can find copyright free public domain images resources below:
Wikipedia Public domain image resources; Princeton Online; Univ. of California (public domain resources); Dover Publications, compiling PD works since 1941 (a favorite hangout of mine when it was on Varick Street in downtown Manhattan); although not PD, Creative Commons licenses works for free.
Broker Tip: If you want to use images for newsletters, business cards, ads and other commercial marketing purposes, look for public domain artwork and save a few bucks.
Related Posts:
Adult Website Scores Perfect 10 on Google in Copyright Lawsuit (Google Images loses first round against adult image site)
Linking Law and The Rabbit Holes of The Web.
Do Images Dictate Content and Media Coverage?
Technorati Tags: Public domain, Copyright, Images, Fair Use, Blogging, Sellsius, Dover Publications
