copyright training session for social media students

Thinking About CopyrightUsing other people’s work in social media projects

Disclaimer: This is not legal advice but an activity and information for guidance only

Matt CornockUniversity of York

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

How would you reactThis 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).


The contextYou 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.


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

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’.


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]’.


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.


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.


Scenario F• A Paris-based homeless charity uses your

photo as their website's main homepage image. You are not credited.


Change of contextHow 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

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.


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


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.


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


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.


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


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/


http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

A note of cautionSometimes 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.


copyright training session for social media students

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