What is the legal status of using copyrighted images in academic/conference talks? I am told that we can use copyrighted images in our lectures to students now as they are for purely educational purposes, as long as we correctly attribute them. That is to say there is no need to ask the permission of the copyright holders. 

What is the status of using copyrighted images in conference talks? Does it also count as education?



As pointed out, this will depend on the country in which the talk is given. Let me restrict the question to the US and UK in that case. If anyone knows the situation in another country then it would be great to hear that too of course.

In the UK, the reason why I suggested you could use copyrighted material in lectures without asking permission was http://lti.lse.ac.uk/copyright/copyright-2014.php#education .
Legal status can vary by country, content and sometimes even - the intended audience.

In many places you are allow to use otherwise copyrighted materials within fair use, e.g a figure from a paper.

For things, which are not directly relevant to talk (e.g. "let's put a nice stock image of a man with a plant") the story may be different.

In any case:


from the practical perspective, you are unlikely to go to jail (or even: getting fined) for showing copyrighted images in an academic talk,
from the legal perspective, unless you are a lawyer (or your country has a very clear law on copyright) you are unlikely to know wether is is legal or not. 


Highly relevant:


Can I use images showing up in Google search for my presentation slides without violating any copyright?