Every image should have an ALT attribute so that users who are browsing with their graphics option turned off, or with text-based web browsers, will know what the image is. Graphics used as spacers and rules are an exception to this. This allows the browser to compose the web page before all of the graphics are downloaded, so that the user can be reading the text on the page while waiting for the graphics to download. Most web-authoring software does this automatically. Copyrighted graphics owned by anyone other than Bates College may not be used on an official Bates College web page unless the proper copyright permissions are obtained.
Copyrights apply just as fully to material on the world wide web as they do to printed material.
Recent legislation has tightened the copyright law as it applies to the internet, and even restricts non-commercial use of copyrighted material. All Rights Reserved.