“Creative Commons makes it easy for content creators to define a set of rules under which they would like the public to use their creative work. For instance, if you upload a photograph on the Internet, you can apply a Creative Commons license that would allow others to embed that photograph in a website or use in a presentation but not sell it commercially.“
http://www.labnol.org/internet/creative-commons-license-rules/14208/
I just found a very useful blog post on tricks to find out who owns an image and what the copyright might be on it. Although the article refers to American copyright the tips and advice offered are sound. Tracking down the origins of an image can be difficult but it is worth it.
“Twitter is a wonderful place to share, and of course we Tweet, reTweet and Favorite to share back to our Personal Learning Network [PLN]. But what if I want to use that image in a post? Do I have permission? First, as I usually do, I asked my peep if she had created the image. She didn’t know the source, which is common in Twitterverse because we like to share a good thing. But I really did like the image and wanted to know if I could use it.  Fortunately, Google provides an image search.”
Earlier this week, the three major Canadian research funding agencies released a new draft for a harmonized open access policy amongst the three organizations. Once finalized, this policy will apply to all researchers who receive a grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), or the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
The proposed policy will advance important rules to help ensure that publicly-funded research in Canada is both accessible and beneficial to the public. Foremost, the rules will require researchers to make their results openly available within one year of publication.