Section 8 · Sourcing & Image Ethics

Public Domain

Definition

Works whose copyright has expired, was forfeited, or never applied — free to use by anyone for any purpose.

Why it matters

Public domain archives are the safest large-scale source for found imagery, and many are excellent.

Example

A long-out-of-copyright photographic print, or a work released under CC0.

Teaching note

Worth pointing students to specific institutional archives rather than leaving them to general image search, which surfaces almost nothing usable.