The Legal Side of Things

British Museum Reading Room - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The URL for both of these pictures is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum_Reading_Room

imagesonline.bl.

imagesonline.bl.

I chose these images as I love the Reading room at the British Library, however, when it comes to concerns then yes, I do have a few. This is the area about which I know little and realise that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing so where ever possible I do not use other people's images unless I feel fairly confident that they are available to anyone or that the use is not going to get me into bother. This got much more difficult a couple of years ago when I started an ill-fated online business which it was necessary to use images to decorate documents that I then sold and finding images for those was not at all easy.

Another very recent cause for concern has been a thread on an internet group I belong to - this does not affect me personally, but it would have been nice to know the rights and wrongs. It concerned the use of downloaded TV programmes being used in CCA time (after school activities) and whether this was allowable or not as it was not strictly and only for education but could be described as leisure even though they were to be shown in a school by a teacher or librarian. Even the experts consulted did not really seem to have a definitive answer and therein lies the problem. If is very difficult to get a really certain answer on so many things to do with copyright. Sometimes, of course it is very straightforward, a picture on Google images covered with the copyright owners name and yes you know that needs to be paid for. However, in between things that are shown as free or having creative commons licenses and these have various levels of 'free' and those that are obviously being charged for is a whole grey area where it is not clear. I can steer clear of anything I am unsure about but that is far less easy when it comes to the students - if they ask my opinion they do not want me to tell them not to use pictures it could be vital they do.

Getting back to the question which I realise I have somewhat side stepped, I don't really have concerns for the material in this course. The writing has been done without using other people's thoughts, writing, etc, it is all my opinions and these are the first two pictures I have used. I would have give them both much longer citations except that was what was available. I don't use any of the apps you mention in the second option - I prefer to keep photos I take out of the public domain, especially if they include pictures of students so I currently use Google Photos.

Not sure if this answers the question but I hope so. I think what it does do is remind me that one of the things I should purchase next time I am in the UK is a book on copyright!