Copyright For Students

Copyright Copyright protects people’s creative work. It applies to stories, essays, artwork and photos, music, film… If you want to use ANYTHING that has been created by another person, in your school work, you should check first that it is allowed. You need permission to copy it, adapt it and use it yourself, distribute copies yourself, or perform the work publically

Sharing your work But suppose you are a singer and you want to share your work, without giving people permission to alter it or publish it themselves, or claim it as their own work? You could use a Creative Commons license, which would define whether people can use your songs commercially, or alter them and use them in their work as samples or loops. Go to the worksheet WS3 Copyright, and follow the steps

Other licenses Organisations like ShutterStock provide professional images from photographers and artists for use in publications. We call this ‘stock photography’. Their license often says Royalty free, because once you have paid to use the images they sell, you can use them as often as you like. You do not however OWN the images or the copyright – you have just bought a license to use them.