Can you use this? Copyright for scrapbookers

You find a beautiful illustration online, a poem that says exactly what you feel, or a digital kit you can download for free. Can you just put it on your page? For your own album, that's usually fine. It only gets more complicated when you show the page to others or make money from it. Below, in plain language, is roughly how it works in the Netherlands and the rest of the European Union.

The basics first

Copyright happens automatically. Anyone who makes an original work, such as a photo, a drawing, a poem or a paper design, has rights to it straight away. You don't need to add a copyright symbol and it doesn't have to be registered anywhere. Only the maker, or whoever has taken over their rights, decides who can copy the work and make it public.

In the Netherlands and the rest of the European Union, that right lasts until seventy years after the maker's death. After that, the work is free: it's in the so-called public domain. So in principle you can use an engraving from 1850 or a poem by a poet who died long ago. A recent translation, edition or adaptation of such an old work can still be protected in its own right, though.

Note: a new photo or scan of an old work can sometimes come with its own terms, for example those of the website where you find it. Many museums and archives deliberately put public domain images online for free use. That's a safe place to look.

Personal or commercial use

This is the most important distinction, and you'll find it in almost every licence you come across.

Personal use is anything you make for yourself without earning from it: your own album, your journal, a little present for a friend. Dutch law allows you to make a copy for your own practice, study or use, as long as you don't make money from it. That doesn't apply if the copy comes from a clearly illegal source. Printing an image for your own album usually falls under this. Sticking a picture from a magazine you bought into your book isn't even copying: you're simply using the paper.

Commercial use starts as soon as money is involved, directly or indirectly. Think of selling pages or cards, making albums to order, running workshops with someone else's materials, or using your work to promote a little shop or an account. Then you need to be sure you have the right to use everything on it in that way.

In between there's a grey area: showing your page online. You don't earn anything from it, but you are making someone else's work public. More on that further down.

Photos and images from the internet

Being able to save an image doesn't mean you can use it freely. Almost everything online has a maker with rights. For your own album, printing a picture is usually fine. If you want to share or sell the page, it's better to choose:

• Public domain images from museums, archives and libraries.
• Images with a Creative Commons licence. Check which kind: sometimes you have to credit the maker, sometimes you can't change anything or use it commercially.
• Stock photos with a licence that fits what you want to do with them. Not every stock licence allows use on products you sell.
• Your own photos, drawings and scans. You're always fine with those.

Magazine cuttings are protected too, even though you bought the magazine. You can use the paper however you like, but the image still belongs to its maker. The same goes for washi tape or patterned paper: you can cut it, stick it and use it in your work, but scanning a design and having it printed again as stickers or cards is copying.

With collages, you often hear that you just need to change an image enough. That isn't a fixed rule. Simply shrinking it, rotating it or putting it on a background changes nothing, and even an adaptation can still fall under the maker's rights. How much you'd need to change can't be captured in a percentage. For anything you sell: use materials you know for sure you're allowed to use.

If a recognisable person appears in a photo, their privacy comes into play as well as copyright. There's a separate article about that.

Quotes and poems on your page

A line from a song or a poem makes a much-loved title or journaling phrase. Texts are protected too, as long as the writer is still alive or died less than seventy years ago.

In your own album, that's fine. For pages you share, it's a bit trickier. The right to quote lets you take a short extract from a work, but it's mainly meant for discussion, criticism or explanation, with the source credited. A whole poem used as decoration on a page you post online doesn't automatically count. Whether a short line does depends on the situation.

What is safe:

• Sayings and proverbs that have been around for generations.
• Poems and quotes by writers who died more than seventy years ago.
• Your own words. They're often the loveliest thing on your page anyway.

Always credit the writer when you use a quote. It's good manners, and it stops anyone thinking the words are yours.

Licences for digital kits and printables

With digital kits, paper packs and printables, it's usually set out in black and white. The download often includes a file with the terms of use, such as a readme or license file. Read it and keep it in the same folder as the files, so you'll still know later who made something and what you're allowed to do.

The abbreviations you'll come across:

• PU (personal use): for your own use only. Not for albums made to order or products you sell.
• CU (commercial use): you can also use it to make something you sell, within the terms of that licence.
• S4H or S4O (scrap for hire, scrap for others): you can use it to make albums or pages for other people, including for payment.

Almost every licence has the same hard limit: you can never pass on, share or resell the files themselves. Not even if you got them for free. If a friend wants the same kit, send her to the place where you found it.

Some makers ask you to mention their name when you show or sell work made with their materials. With digital pages, this is called giving credits. It takes little effort and matters a lot to the maker.

Sharing pages with other people's designs

You've used patterned paper, stickers and dies from a brand and want to show your page. That happens a lot, and many manufacturers actually love it. You're sharing your own page, not the design on its own.

What you don't do:

• Share patterns, cut files, templates or instructions from a book or paid course publicly. Show the card or page, not the pattern behind it.
• Scan individual papers or files and offer them as a download.
• Show a page you've copied almost exactly as if it were your idea. Mention the page or maker that inspired you.

Strictly speaking, sharing a page with a printed picture from the internet means making someone else's work public, which in principle needs the maker's permission. Many makers don't mind if you mention their name, but that's their decision. If a maker asks you to take something down, do it straight away and without argument.

AI images: what's allowed and what isn't?

With AI programs, you can make an illustration or background in a few seconds. A lot is still uncertain, but there are a few things worth knowing.

Whether an AI image is protected depends on how many human creative choices went into it. In Europe, copyright requires a work that reflects a person's own creative choices. An image made almost entirely by the computer is therefore probably not protected, although this hasn't been settled everywhere yet. That also means you can't claim any rights to it yourself.

What does count are the program's terms. They decide whether you can use the images commercially. Read them before you sell anything with an AI image, and check the rules of the place where you sell too.

Don't ask an AI program to make something in the style of a well-known living illustrator, or with a recognisable character or logo. That's a sensitive area, and a character or brand stays protected, whoever draws it.

If you buy kits or printables, you'll see more and more makers mentioning that AI was used. If you share or sell AI images yourself, it's a good idea to say so too.

And one more thing: an album full of memories calls for real photos. A generated photo of a moment that never happened that way doesn't sit well in a book about real moments. As decoration or a background, AI can work fine; as your memory, it can't.

A quick check

Before you use something, ask yourself three things. Will this stay in my own book, or will I show it or sell it? Who does it belong to, and has that maker been dead for more than seventy years? And what does the licence say? Keep those licences, credit your makers, and if in doubt: make it yourself or ask.

This is general information, not legal advice. If you're unsure, ask the maker for permission or consult a lawyer.