Whose picture is it? Copyright for children

If you draw a drawing it is yours. You decide who may use it.

The same holds for everything somebody has created: pictures, songs, films, texts, games. It is called copyright, and it applies automatically — you do not have to apply for anything.

Something being on the internet does not mean it is free. A picture you find online was made by somebody, and that person still decides.

What you may do:

May	Example
Look and read	everything that is published
Use it in schoolwork	usually fine, but write down where it comes from
Use pictures marked as free	CC0, CC BY, «public domain»
Use your own pictures	obviously

What you may not do:

May not	Why
Put somebody else's picture up as your own	that is taking something that is not yours
Sell something with somebody else's picture on it	even more clearly so
Put pictures of other people up without asking	that is also about their privacy

Where do you find pictures you may use?

The place	What
Wikimedia Commons	millions of free pictures
Pictures marked CC0	may be used freely, nobody has to be named
Pictures marked CC BY	may be used if you write who made it
Your own	always fine

Writing down where something comes from is called giving the source, and it is a good habit even when you do not have to. It shows that you are not pretending to have made something you did not.

And what about AI images? Here it gets trickier, and there are three different questions:

The question	The answer
May I use a picture I have generated?	usually yes — but check the tool's rules
Do I own it?	probably not — in Sweden a human being has to have created something for it to be protected
Is it fine to imitate an artist's style?	a style is not protected, but many artists do not like it

The middle one surprises most people: a picture you have generated with AI can probably be used by anybody at all, because it is probably not protected at all.

One rule that always holds: do not generate pictures of real people without asking them. That is not a copyright question but a question of respect — and in some cases illegal.

Task 1 — find free pictures.

Go to Wikimedia Commons and search for something you like. Click on a picture and find the licence. Does it say CC0? CC BY? Something else?

Write down three pictures you have found and what holds for each of them.

Task 2 — give the source.

For a CC BY picture you have to write who made it. It can look like this:

Picture: "Golden eagle" by Anna Andersson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Write such a line for a picture you have found.

Task 3 — discuss in a group.

What do you think about these cases? There are no obvious answers.

#	The case
1	Somebody puts your drawing on their account without asking
2	Somebody makes an AI image «in the style of» an artist who is alive today
3	Somebody uses your picture in a piece of schoolwork and writes your name
4	Somebody makes an AI image of your classmate
5	Somebody sells jumpers with an AI image that resembles a famous character

Questions to discuss: Who is affected? What should the person have done instead? Is it illegal, unfair, or both?

Case 4 is the one that usually provokes the most discussion — and it is also the one where the answer is clearest: ask first.