1) What is Fair Dealing?
Fair dealing encompasses the actions that fall within a user's right to copy or use others' work. Fair dealing does not need permission, but as good scholarly practice, works should be referenced/cited accordingly. Some common purposes that fall within the scope of fair dealing include criticism or reviews, research, private study, education, parody, and satire.
Other special user rights apply to special groups such as educational institutions, libraries, archives, museums, or persons with disabilities. To find out more about a particular inquiry or what your rights may be, contact McMaster Copyright.
2) Where can I find images that I can reuse and/or modify?
The following resources contain searchable media sets with images that have been licensed for reuse. It is still best practice to check the specific license of any piece of media that you decide to use to make sure you comply with the license stipulations.
Google Image Search: When searching for images through Google Image Search, select "Tools" and click the "Usage Rights" dropdown menu. You will be able to filter out images that have been labeled for specific purposes, including reuse, modification, and even commercial use.
Creative Commons: This database of Creative Commons licensed digital material contains hundreds of millions of items for reuse.
Wikimedia Commons: A database of more than 52 million useable media files.