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Practically all materials (pictures, written
words, etc.) produced by anyone in the United States other than the
government are protected by copyrights. This is even true if they do not
have a copyright notice anywhere on them. Basically, from the moment
something is put down on paper (or a photo, or a recording, or a website, etc.) it is
copyrighted--even before it is ever published.
This means that any material you find on
someone's website is copyrighted, even if it doesn't say it is!
Downloading content and using it without permission is considered
stealing and is illegal.
So, you ask, how are you supposed to find
images that you can use in this project without violating any
copyrights? You have a few options.
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Works authored by the US government are
not copyrighted. However, sometimes the government buys a copyright
from a private creator, so you might see a copyright notice even on
something published by the government. Your rule of thumb here is,
it's OK to use something published by the government unless
it has a copyright notice.
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Sometimes the creator of a work
specifically says that it can be used without permission. That makes
it OK to use in your project. For example, the Smithsonian
specifically gives students permission to use its pictures in school
reports, as long as you also include their original captions. Also,
Microsoft gives permission for anyone to use images from Microsoft Office Online as long as you dont resell the images.
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Copyrights last for a long time (as much
as a hundred years or longer!), but they eventually expire. After
that, anyone can use them. This is why you can use images like the
old Civil War era photos at the Library of Congress.
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Even copyrighted material can be used if
you get the copyright owner's permission. If you have time, you can
try to email the copyright owner and ask for permission to use it.
You must actually get a response giving you permission--don't
assume you have permission just because you don't get an answer. You
may not have time for this option for this project, but it's nice to
know anyway.
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