Digital Arts  

Research Subjects

Other Guides

Online reference books are a great way to start your research project. You can get background information to develop your research topic.

Watch this fun video on Copyright Basics to get the essentials on copyright law. 

Copyrighted Material - Copyright Law gives the copyright license holder's exclusive rights to the creator or author of the work.  This gives the creator the right to control who makes copies or how the material is used. The term of the copyright last the duration of the author's life plus 70 years after the author's death if the work was created after January 1, 1978. For the complete copyright law, click here. 

Fair Use - Fair use allows for limited use of copyrighted material without requesting permission from the rights holder. For more information, check out the wikipedia page on Fair Use.

Public Domain - This pertains to material that is not covered by any intellectual property rights such as copyright, trademarks or patents. Copyrighted materials can become public domain after their copyright date expires. For more information, check out the wikipedia page on Public Domain. 

Creative Commons - Creative commons licenses are free licenses that allows the creator to create which rights they want to reserve. Creative Commons licenses are usually less restrictive than copyrighted material.  Visit the Creative Commons site to learn more about it and to apply for CC licenses. 

Royalty Free - Royalty free means that once the content is licensed under a set of guidelines, the content is free to use without having to pay additional royalty charges. 

These links to software tutorials provide tricks and insight on how to create that special visual effect. 

Digital art projects can include sound effects and music and many can be found online free to download and use if they're in the public domain.