|
Anything in the "public domain" (meaning no one owns the copyright)
is available for use. Graphics and photos are always copyright of their owner/creator. You should only use them if you have permission from same or if they are in the public domain.
As far as text goes, you need to have permission from the author to legally use it on your own site (you can almost always link to their site for it though).
A couple of exceptions to this rule:
You are allowed to use excerpts - and even fairly long excerpts - IF you are making an editorial comment on it in some fashion. This falls under the
"fair use" copyright rules. For instance, you could use an excerpt of something someone else wrote on meditation and then add your own opinion on how it should be improved upon/expanded on. If you do this,
you must always credit the original author for the excerpts you used and it must always give an opinion somehow on the original author's work.
In regards to genealogy
, there is a wonderful article pertaining to copyrights on this particular issue
here. Generally, it can be summed up to say that IF the genealogy info listed pertains to your own ancestors or decendants, it falls under "fair use" and
that includes text and photos. Of course, it is always recommended to use the common courtesy of referencing the sources for the info.
Almost anything produced by a governement agency is in the public domain. Always double check thier rules, as there are sometimes exceptions.
Here are just a few great sites that offer public domain
info and/or graphics that some of the respective authors/creators give free licences to use. They all have their own rules, so be sure and follow them (usually crediting the author with a link back to their site). On the graphics sites, pay attention to licenses, as most have some you can use freely and some you can't. Most all of this stuff is free for non-commercial use (meaning you don't make money directly from the sale of their works/info)...
www.wikipedia.org
www.articlecity.com
www.articlesbase.com
www.sxc.hu
www.fci.crossnet.se
www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
www.freesticky.com
www.healthfinder.gov
www.cdc.gov
www.ahrq.gov
www.medlineplus.gov
|
|
