Even if you are allowed to distribute material freely, you need to be keep track of what you’re doing

• Always find out who owns the rights
  

Just because you find material online doesn’t mean you can use it freely.

Photos that come up when you search on Google aren’t owned by Google. These are just photos that Google finds when searching metadata.

If you find a photo in a Google search, you need to check who owns the rights to the photo and the conditions that allow you to use it – if, indeed, you’re allowed to use it at all.

A lot of what’s created in the form of photos, videos, texts, etc. is protected by copyright law. Essentially, whoever created something also has an exclusive right to that material.

• There are things you can use without asking
  

There are things that you can use legally without having to ask for permission first.

There’s material online that’s available under what’s known as a Creative Commons licence (CC licence) Länk till annan webbplats.. You can read more about CC licences here www.creativecommons.se/om-cc/licenserna Länk till annan webbplats..

A lot of material today is made available under CC licences. A CC licence is a licence where the originator agrees that the work can be distributed freely, as long as the originator is credited as the creator of the work. So you have to say who took a photo, for example.

• Symbols can help you
  

Obviously, there may be variants of the CC licence.

Some originators want their work to be distributed, but others require you not to use it for commercial purposes, such as advertising, or demand that the work isn’t adapted or altered.

These symbols have been developed to make it easier to use CC, and to avoid you having to read complicated text describing how material can (and can’t) be used: