Hello all,

Quick question, can I use pictures from the Internet, without referencing where they come from, I see lots of lecturers and presenters do this all the time.

Thanks

I wouldn't recommend it - our students always get pulled up on this if they do it. Best to reference everything that you haven't created yourself.

and any pictures you ahve taken yourself just so it is clear.

yeah you can do but without reference it would be considered as plagarism so clearly mention the site from where you have taken the pictures.date accessed the site too

you also need to check if the internet site holds the copyright to the picture. If you look at a lot of photos in newspapers etc. the name of the photographer is printed in the corner. They are the ones who hold the copyright and are the ones from whom permission to use has to be sought. The same usual rules apply about use for study, but then you have to be careful about using them in power point presentations or other things that might be used in a public domain, its something your librarian will be able to help you with, our librarian gave us this info when giving us a talk on copyright. This meant for me that I couldn't use a pic that illustrated perfectly what I wanted to show, but I couldn't use it because it would have been part of a presentation and I couldn't get the necessary permission as I couldn't find out who could give this. Pictures in art galleries have a similar problem. you should always reference these things properly from the first time you use them, it might be very difficult to find out later.

Also, as I have found out in the process of putting the thesis together, it is best to only use pictures for which one can get copyright - because then this will make future dissemination and circulation of the thesis easier. I hate reading theses and finding that some of the images have a "removed for copyright reasons" instead .

Usually some of the larger libraries and museums/galleries are fine as long as the picture is accompanied with an acknowledgment. I have written emails before and kindly had things waived.

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Your comments have really surprised me! I see professionals, academics, researcher's do this all time.. incredible!  Thank you all for your feedback.

The problems is that by everyone using pictures, graphs, etc from the net, everyone therefore seems to have really technical and advanced presentation material, but I guess others can see straight through this?