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Images

In the beginning of the CLASS™ Project, Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET) was largely responsible for locating all of the images and creating the original art for the courses. However, this made it nearly impossible for the University of Nebraska - Lincoln (UNL), Division of Continuing Studies (DCS), Research and Development Unit (R&D) to keep accurate records concerning copyrights. In order to remedy this situation, the course development teams took on the responsibility for finding pictures and submitting permission requests for everything except those that NET created as original works.

The following is a list of some of the types of resources that the CLASS™ project used as graphics sources and the conditions applied to them.

  • Stock photography: Buying one image at a time from vendors
    Examples: Corbis-Bettman, TonyStone, Interspace
    • Must include a credit line of the stock company's choosing under/beside each imag
    • Must renew image at end of varying term
      Images may or may not be altered depending on the stock company's policies
    • Usually most expensive option, but fast to obtain
  • Royalty-free images: Library of images from vendor, on-hand, unlimited use
    Examples: PhotoDisc™, PhotoSpin™
    • Must include a credit line of the company's choosing under/beside each image
    • Up front expense, but cost effective in the long run
    • Images may be edited/altered
    • Blanket license agreement saves time
  • NET and Contractors: Created/recreated images by Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET)
    Examples: maps, flags, graphics
    • Must include the phrase, "Copyright ©[year], University of Nebraska, Board of Regents" under/beside each image
    • Expensive to create
    • Saves time because the University of Nebraska owns the copyright
  • Donated images: Photos from non-professional photographers
    Example: personal photos
    • Must include the phrase, "Copyright ©[year], [photographer's name], photographer" under/beside each image
    • Permission for life of the course and usually free
    • Usually image can be edited/altered
  • Other images: variety of sources
    Examples: web images, images from print media, images from museums or special institutions
    • Time intensive because they must be tracked to original source and requested, usually a 3-6 month process
    • Must include credit line of the owner's choosing under/beside each image
    • Usually cannot be altered
    • Usually quite costly because both the cost for the original and permission price have to be paid. This can run into several thousand dollars
  • Public domain images: images in the public domain
    Examples: images first published over 100 years ago
    • Some research time is required
    • Some images maintain a permissions cost
    • Must cite correctly and include the credit line as requested by the holder under/beside the image
    • Holder must clear any alterations to the image, generally specified in the license agreement

Public domain refers to works that were once copyrighted, but are no longer subject to copyright laws (usually due to expiration or failure to renew the copyright) or works created by the federal government or works for which copyright was never claimed. As such, the copyright laws do not apply. (Definition from ‘The Copyright Primer’ by the American Library Association and the National Education Association.)

Overall, CLASS™ found that royalty-free and public domain images provided the most cost-effective source for most general graphic representations. However, many types of specialized pictures are not available royalty free, and/or they are too recent to be found in the public domain. Unfortunately, photographs of modern celebrated figures--political leaders, astronauts, scientists, entertainers, business leaders, and authors--and recent events--African freedom movements, AIDS crisis, Challenger explosion, fall of the USSR--are nearly impossible to find royalty-free. Therefore, CLASS™ was forced to resort to more expensive stock photography or images from other sources, or NET had to create the necessary graphics, which took time and money.

Additional complications arose with the courses were to be distributed by a for-profit entity - class.com. After class.com began marketing CLASS™ courses, the R&D unit had to reprocess every permission for every image in every course except the images that had been created by NET. Many of the sources that had granted permission to use their images rescinded that right once a for-profit entity became involved. Others that had allowed their images to be used at little or no cost increased their permission price dramatically.

Copyright 2004 - University of Nebraska Board of Regents - All Rights Reserved

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