Copyright information
Information onimage copyright and intellectual property rights
This page will provide information on image copyright.
What is copyright?
Copyright is part of a wider set of intellectual property rights which offer protection and certain exclusive rights to the owner(s) of the rights in a work. In the UK the key piece of legislation is the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA).
Find out more about the School's advice on copyright.
General advice
Images featured on a website
- The Centre should own the image copyright (e.g. for a centre like CEP, images commissioned and paid for, such as Covid analysis covers, Centrepiece; for a centre like STICERD/CASE, images commissioned for websites such as the Multidimensional Inequality Framework)
- From third parties that supply copyight-free images (for instance Unsplash) or that license stock images (for instance iStock)
Even for covers that have been commissioned by a centre, confirm with the designer that they have used their own graphs and sources or has the required license for the image that permits use on a website.
For book covers that may be used on a website, permission is required by the publisher as copyright may exist in the featured image or in the typography.
Images on social media
- own images (produced and owned by you)
- images from third parties that supply copyight-free images (for instance Unsplash for copyright-free images or iStock for licensed images)
If images are bought from licensing agencies:
- Document when the image was downloaded, when and where it was used.
- Keep proof of purchase or receipt with the date of purchase.
- Keep a note of the url to the original image.
- Credit information and attribution must be included on the page where you have used the image. (See CREDIT below)
- For all images, some form of documentation on the page is useful, either in the 'alt text' and/or the filename. For example: an image of a ship from Unsplash may be named Ship-unsplash-url123.jpg.
Credit and attribution
Even if an image is free to use and is copyright free, it is good practice to put credit and attribution information in alt part of an image tag:
But sometimes this is not enough:
- Many "free to use" image repositories have specific attribution instructions and require a clear note of credit on the page. Please read usage instructions carefully.
- Some "free to use" image repositories promote licensable, priced images from other parties. For instance, if you search on Unsplash, the top results are all images from iStock photo that have to be paid for:
They also promote their own licensable, priced images: Unsplash +
- For images from Unsplash only, the Unsplash licence is clear that attribution is not required, but is appreciated.
- Creative Commos licensing information - there is information on different types of licenses.
Resources for free images
LSE resources
- LSE Image Bank: Bynder
For information on how to access Bynder, please contact the LSE Brand team. - Flickr: LSE in Pictures.
- Flickr: LSE Library.
Resources external to LSE
- Flickr: make sure you search within the Creative Commons licenses.
Please read the various types of Creative Commons licenses.
If in doubt, use images in the public domain.
If images are licensed with some rights reserved, please read carefully the conditions and if in doubt do not use them.
- Creative Commons images
- Wikimedia Commons
- Open access image libraries
- Public Domain Pictures
- Icons and photos
- Unsplash
Reference resources
- Best practices for attribution
- Copyright-related rights - National Archive
- Intellectual porperty: Copyright - Government advice
- Copyright user
- How to check if your website images are copyrighted
Last updated in August 2024