Digital Storytelling

From The University of Scranton Research Guides

Copyright

Many people assume that if an image or video is freely available on the Internet, that means they can use it however they want. Most of the content on the web, though, is protected by copyright restrictions. How do you know what you can appropriately use?

Fair Use

United States copyright law allows you to use copyrighted works for educational purposes, without securing permission from the original creator, in very limited ways. However, fair use is kind of a murky area.

Some guidance on fair use:

• Copyright & Fair Use - Stanford University Libraries' take on fair use and what it really means.
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video - from the Future of Public Media. See especially #2, "Using Copyrighted Material for Illustration or Example."
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education - see especially #4, "Student Use of Copyrighted Materials in their own Academic and Creative Work"
• "The Common Sense of the Fair Use Doctrine" - a recent article from the Chronicle of Higher Education
• Fair Use Checklist - from Cornell University
• Copyright Basics - a helpful (though somewhat cheesy) video on copyright by the Copyright Clearance Center
• FAQ for Students: Code of Best Practices for Fair Use
• FAQ for Professors: Code of Best Practices for Fair Use
• A Map of Use Issues - a visual decision chart for fair use by the University of Minnesota

Creative Commons and Public Domain

Instead of relying on fair use, you can also search for images or videos that have Creative Commons licenses. The creators of these materials have decided to allow others to share, remix, or otherwise use their content, under certain conditions that are described in their CC license. Always check the license to understand what those conditions are.

Some materials are in the public domain, which means they are owned by the public, so their use is unrestricted by intellectual property laws. You can always use public domain resources without obtaining permission from the original creator. Works published in the United States before 1923 are in the public domain, as are most U.S. governmental publications. For other published and unpublished works, public domain status can be a little more complicated.

Where to Search for Images

• Flickr - Lots of amazing photos. You can limit your search to Creative Commons-licensed images by going to "Advanced Search," scroll all the way to the bottom, and select "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content"
• Google Advanced Image Search - Like Flickr, you can limit your search to Creative Commons-licensed images. Under "Usage Rights," select "Only images labeled for reuse."
• MorgueFile - a collection of free images with very liberal licenses
• Creativity103 has CC-licensed abstract backgrounds and video footage
• Open Clip Art Library is a collection of public domain clip art, freely contributed by users
• The Digital Comic Museum contains some beautiful and unique Golden Age comics, the copyright status of which has all been researched and confirmed to be public domain. They're free, but you do have to set up an account in order to download.
• Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online
• New York Public Library Digital Gallery
• World Images - from the University of California, this collection of images is CC-licensed.

Where to Search for Music and Video

• YouTube - after running a search, you can click "Filter" and then "Creative Commons" to limit to CC-licensed videos.
• Artist Server - a database of free music by independent artists. Not all of the music is CC-licensed (and there's no easy way to filter a search for CC-licensed music only), but each song has its copyright restrictions clearly marked.
• dig.CCMixter - a site specifically designed to provide CC-licensed music to be used in podcasts or video recordings
• Internet Archive - a nonprofit site that preserves images, documents, and film. Most of the videos on the site are either public domain or Creative Commons-licensed (check the license to be sure!).
• Freeplay Music - Freeplay "grants free master recording and synchronization rights to students, to the FPM Production Music Library, excluding the FPM Indie Artist and Sound Effects Library, when FPM music is used by students within a school or class assignment."
• SoundCloud - searchable by genre, duration, tempo - and you can limit to CC-licensed works.
• MusicShake - make your own music.

Other Useful Tools

• Movie Maker (Windows)
  • CTLE tutorial for MovieMaker (XP and Vista)
  • CTLE tutorial for Windows Live MovieMaker (Windows 7)
• iMovie (Mac)
  • CTLE tutorial for iMovie
• Aviary - a free tool you can use for screenshots and/or photo editing
• GIMP - free software for photo editing and retouching
• Audacity - a free, open source tool for editing audio files
• Myna - a free audio editor, by Aviary

Attribution

No matter what the copyright status of the materials you use in your digital storytelling, always be sure to credit your source. Check out the Purdue Online Writing Lab for help citing electronic resources in APA format.

Images

The Colgate Visual Resources Library has suggested this format for citing Flickr photos in APA style:

• For a regular Flickr photo:
  • harshilshah100 (2009) Vienna - Rathaus, [digital image]. Retrieved October 9, 2009 from Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshilshah/3823135957.

Videos

The University of Illinois Library has some good advice on citing YouTube videos:

"With YouTube videos, it is important to distinguish between the creator of the content and the person who posted the content. If the creator of the video is credited, put their name in the author position (Creator). Next include the name or screen name of the person who posted the video (Poster), followed by the date posted, the title, and the URL. If no creator is listed, put the poster in the first spot."

• Has a creator:
  • Takayma-Ogawa, J., & Willette, J (Creators). OtisCollege (Poster) (2007, March 14). What is information literacy [Video] Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeopJX5jJV8.

• Has only a poster:
  • darkinsidious (Poster). Slingshot fun [Video]. (2007, January 29). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCmZYce0J2E.

Interviews

APA citation of interviews is a little complicated. The APA manual says that unpublished interviews (e.g., you conduct your own interview with someone and don't publish it anywhere) only need to be cited "in text" rather than in a final reference list. But your digital story doesn't really have "in text" citations. What I'd like to see is a citation for your interview *somewhere*, whether it's typed somewhere in your digital story before, during, or after the interview clip. Here's the format (with Y. Martel being the person you're interviewing):

• (Y. Martel, personal communication, April 15, 2005)

In general, do your best - include as much information as you can.

Need help?

Ask Kristen or any of the UofS librarians!