Copyright: Determining image rights and permissions

This Code provides visual-arts professionals with a set of principles addressing best practices in the fair use of copyrighted materials. It describes how fair use can be invoked and implemented when using copyrighted materials in scholarship, teaching, museums, archives, and in the creation of art. The Code addresses the five issues: analytic writing; teaching about art; making art; museum uses; and online access to archival and special collections. Since courts are increasingly looking favorably on established best practices in field, this is a critical document for artists and art educators.

This website lists an expanding number of sources that provide images for a wide range of uses, including academic and scholarly use, with a focus on images suitable for publication. The list includes image banks based in the US and outside the US which provide free use of images (read the fine print of each to determined approved use) as well as some fee-for-use image banks.

Still have questions? Take a look at these frequently asked questions.

Although the guidelines are specific to the University of Chicago Press, you might find their policies helpful.