I've looked into this issue before, using copyrighted material in a science talk, and haven't been able to find a clear answer. I have concluded that this is sort of unsettled law. Everyone seems to agree on the definition of fair use and the standards, but no one seems to agree on whether or not using copyrighted images in a scientific presentation qualifies as fair use or not. There are not a lot of cases of scientists being sued for using Far Side comics in their ESA talk, and without the case law it remains a slightly gray area. Some agencies suggest a very conservative approach or avoiding copyrighted material altogether, but this advice seems too limiting to me.
Overall, these are the guidelines I am following for now: (1) It is gracious and polite to give credit as much as possible, so always indicate the source (2) If reasonable, getting permission to use photographs is always appreciated, no one wants to be surprised to see their own photograph show up in some stranger's talk---although you may be forgiven if you sourced prominently (3) If it is a one-off talk to scientists, don't worry about it too much (4) If you have a talk that you plan to give to a public audience, or other non-academic audiences, then make more of an effort to get permission. This is especially important if you plan to give the talk repeatedly. (5) Be cautious about what you put on the web, especially if you are putting it onto a highly trafficked site (6) Be more cautious with materials that have significant market value, try not to make totally gratuitous use of commercial material, i.e. that Far Side cartoon should relate (7) Remember that you usually could pay for the right to use something I'd be interested to hear other people's guidelines. I'd especially like to hear what photographers think of seeing their images used in people's talks. Cheers, Yasmin On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 9:50 AM, Gavin Simpson <[email protected]>wrote: > On Wed, 2009-05-13 at 08:47 -0400, Tom Mosca III wrote: > > Hello Folks, > > > > What are your thoughts on using a copyrighted image in a presentation > > at a meeting? No copies are distributed, but merely displayed. > > IANAL, but the act of displaying the image could constitute copyright > infringement. It sounds stupid I know, but in some places you could > *potentially* open yourself to action. If you are worried about it, ask > for permission from the copyright holder. > > Personally, I consider this 'fair use' (even if such a thing doesn't > really exist in the UK), and as long as I cite my source and the > originator of the work I am using, I don't see what the problem is. > > It would be very useful if those putting information up on websites etc > stated what rights a user has to make use of the published works. > Creative Commons licences - whilst not liked by everyone - do allow you > to make clear what rights you do or do not allow your work to be reused > under: > > http://creativecommons.org/ > > Otherwise, copyright, in those countries that have such a notion in > their law, is automatically assigned and the presumption is that no > rights are conveyed to a third party without permission of the copyright > holder. > > HTH > > G > > > > > Thanks, Tom > -- > %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~% > Dr. Gavin Simpson [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522 > ECRC, UCL Geography, [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565 > Pearson Building, [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk > Gower Street, London [w] > http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/<http://www.ucl.ac.uk/%7Eucfagls/> > UK. WC1E 6BT. [w] http://www.freshwaters.org.uk > %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~% > -- ------------------------------------------------ Yasmin Lucero Postdoctoral Fellow Northwest Fisheries Science Center 2725 Montlake Boulevard East, Rm 171W Seattle, Washington 98112 http://yasmin.lucero.googlepages.com
