Marketing

Canva Training with Kristin 2-3-23

Copyright/Fair Use Guidelines

As a reminder, all staff involved in creating social media posts, blog posts, calendar events and programs, displays, posters, or other print and digital materials for BCLS must follow copyright guidelines.

Fair Use is our friend!

Fair use is part of copyright law and allows you to use copyrighted materials without permission under certain circumstances. This is especially helpful for nonprofits like us, who are generally using materials for educational purposes and non-monetized promotion of the library.

There are four questions to consider when determining whether your use is a fair one.

Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
Nature of the copyrighted work, such as whether the work is fiction or non-fiction, published or unpublished;
Amount of the work used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole, such as using a poem in its entirety, or using one chapter from a long book;
Effect of the use upon the potential market for the copyrighted work. (Does using this have the potential to affect the sales of the copyrighted work?)

Some more specifics on certain materials I think are relevant:

Book, Album, and Movie Covers

When using content such as book, album, and movie covers, remember that these are protected by copyright law. Fair use may apply, however, especially for purposes like education, criticism, or news reporting. However, always be mindful of the amount and context in which these materials are used. For example, we can generally use images of book covers to inform or promote them. This is because the cover image only represents a part of a book, and can not be substituted for the real thing. Movie posters and album covers are likely to be considered separate works

Book and Character Names

Generally, under fair use, we can use names of book and movie characters in programming – for example, “Harry Potter Party” or “Bluey Party.” As a nonprofit organization, we are not making money by using these names, and we are not affecting the market or sales of these licensed characters. We should, however, avoid using sound recordings, illustrations, or screen grabs in our promotions.

Craft/DIY Photos

Sometimes for a craft program it’s nice to have an example picture to show patrons what the finished craft will look like. Please be cautious with this and do not use photos that are owned by an artist or other creator. We need to use our own photos, or find something that works from a free-use photo website like Canva.

Photos of Authors/Presenters

We feature different visiting authors and promote program presenters all the time! If you ever need to do this, make sure you are only using images from the person’s media kit or press photos, as these are approved by the author and their agent/legal team for use in promotion.

Where to find photos?

There are several great options for finding images to use that are fair use. Here are some sites where you can find an image of almost anything you need: