Thinking About Copyright - Using other people’s work in social media projects. Disclaimer: This is not legal advice but an activity and information for guidance only. Features a quiz to challenge students' perceptions of copyright.

1. Thinking About Copyright
Using other people’s work in social media projects
Disclaimer: This is not legal advice but an activity and
information for guidance only
Matt Cornock
University of York

2. In this session
• What you think is acceptable use of
copyrighted work
• Understanding restrictions and copyright
• When you can use someone else’s work for a
social media project
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

3. How would you react
This exercise asks you to consider a number of
scenarios where someone else has used something you
have created without asking your permission first.
For each scenario say whether you are ok with that use
(Yes) or not (No).
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

4. The context
You have taken a photo on holiday of the Eiffel Tower lit
up at night. It looks rather nice and you are especially
proud of your photo.
You post the photo publicly on Twitter (a social
networking site) and the image is available to anyone
with the internet.
The following situations occur without asking your
permission. Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

5. Scenario A
• A local, small, independent travel agent spots
your photo and re-tweets it. The photo stays
on Twitter and you are credited as the photo
is just passed on via Twitter to more users.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License
Photo (cc-by) Matt Cornock

6. Scenario B
• A local, small, independent travel agent uses
your photo within an article about Paris on
their website. The photo is credited ‘Source:
Twitter’.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

7. Scenario C
• A multi-national travel agent uses your photo
on the cover of their Viva La France sales
brochure. 10,000 copies are printed
worldwide. On the inside cover, the photo is
credited ‘Source: *Your Twitter Name+’.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

8. Scenario D
• A pro-European political party uses your
photo for an online awareness campaign on
the cultural delights of mainland Europe. You
are not credited.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

9. Scenario E
• A college student uses your photo as the basis
for their work. They apply a ‘charcoal drawing’
black-and-white effect before adding brightly
coloured circles over the image. They publish
it on their online portfolio. You are not
credited.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

10. Scenario F
• A Paris-based homeless charity uses your
photo as their website's main homepage
image. You are not credited.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

11. Change of context
How would your responses change if:
– The photo includes a person sitting on a park
bench, they are quite prominent in the photo and
could be identified.
Or…
– The person is a member of your family.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License
Photo (cc-by) Matt Cornock

12. Summarising your restrictions
• In your response to the scenarios you will
have made a judgement on what you feel is
acceptable or not. These are your restrictions.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

13. Summarising your restrictions
• You might place restrictions based on:
– Certain people, e.g. students and researchers
– Fee required to be paid
– Accredited with your name
– The work is not adapted
– The work is not used for financial or political gain
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

14. Summarising your restrictions
• Your views on what is acceptable or not may
differ from the person using your work.
• Similarly, when you use a piece of work from
someone else they may have different views
to your own of what is acceptable use.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

15. Copyright law
• Copyright law varies in different countries and
is dependent on the type of material and how
you use it. However, the general rule is…
Assume you cannot use it
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

16. No © does not mean no copyright
• Copyright exists from the moment something is
created, therefore the © symbol does not need to
exist next to a work for it to be copyrighted.
• Just because something is available online does not
mean the creator gives permission for reuse
elsewhere.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

17. How stuff can be used
• You can use something in a social media project if
one of the following apply:
– You have contacted the copyright owner and asked for
permission
– The work is released under a Creative Commons license
(or other license) that grants use under certain conditions
– An exemption in copyright law permits it and you are able
to justify use based on that exemption
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

18. Creative Commons
• Six types of license, each require the work to
be attributed, and may also have other
restrictions on use
• See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License

19. A note of caution
Sometimes people make work available under Creative
Commons (or other licenses) utilising someone else’s
copyrighted material, without obtaining permission to
use and re-release their material under a Creative
Commons license.
Re-using this material yourself could mean you are also
breaching copyright.
Matt Cornock, University of York. Slides may be used under
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 3.0 License