Sustainable Building Technology

Images available online

An educational exception in the Copyright Act (section 30.04) allow you to reproduce and communicate works available on the Internet for educational purposes to students enrolled in a class (e.g., handing out the work in hardcopy, posting the work on a learning management system), provided that:

1. The works are available online openly and not protected by “digital locks” such as a paywall or password-protection.
2. There is no clearly visible notice specifically prohibiting the intended use of the work (this notice needs to be more than just the copyright symbol “©”).
3. The work has not been made available on the Internet in violation of the copyright owner’s rights.
4. The work is cited when you use it, with the source of the materials and the name of the author or creator if their name is available.

Many online image collections have ways to limit to Creative Commons license, or other open licenses.