Copyright is a protection given to authors of "creative works" like images, music, movies and books. The unauthorized use of copyrighted material is considered infringement of copyright law and is illegal.
Fair use is an exception to copyright law that allows copyright-protected works to be used in certain circumstances without permission from the copyright holder. If you intend to use a copyrighted article, book, image or video, you will want your use to fall within fair use guidelines.
Before using a copyrighted work, begin to examine your circumstance by asking yourself questions like:
If you intend to use images and other digital content in a class assignment or project and want to learn more about properly crediting authors and creators and following fair use guidelines, check out the resources below.