Creator Guide: Sourcing, Credit & Copyright

Anything you made yourself — your own photos, writing, and original music or narration. Always the safest option.

Public domain work is also free to use: material old enough that copyright has expired, or created by the U.S. federal government. This includes a lot of historical photography, paintings, and literature. Good sources include:

• Museum open-access collections (many major museums, including the National Gallery of Art, offer collections free to use).
• Very old books, poems, and images — roughly speaking, anything published before the early 1930s is very likely public domain, and that date moves forward a year every January.
• U.S. government photography and documents.

One catch: a photo of a public domain painting isn't automatically free if it's a new photograph someone else took. Look for collections explicitly marked "open access" or "public domain," not just old-looking images.

If you're making an argument about something — analyzing a film's costume design, discussing a musician's technique — using a small amount of that work to illustrate your point can be reasonable. This is sometimes called "fair use," but it's not a blanket permission slip. It generally means: use as little as you need, keep the focus on your commentary, and don't use it in a way that substitutes for the original.

What fair use is not: "it's just for education," "I gave credit," and "it's already public" are common misconceptions, not actual protections on their own.

You can use AI to help structure your insho, tighten your writing, or generate simple visuals. If you do, disclose it in the Credits field — a simple note like "narration: AI-generated" or "visuals: AI-assisted" is enough.

Works is different from the other three categories. It's meant to hold things made by hand and by skill — pottery, painting, sculpture, woodworking, restoration, embroidery, photography, writing, and music. Purely AI-generated content isn't accepted here, even with disclosure.

This doesn't change anything about Ideas, Stories, or Collections — AI-assisted narration, visuals, or writing help is still fine there, as long as it's disclosed in the Credits field. Works is simply the one place on insho reserved for things a person actually made.

Right now, music in an insho should be either public domain (verified against actual public domain schedules, which change year to year), or used only as quoted lyrics with attribution — not as an actual audio recording. Your own original music is always fine. Someone else's music requires confirming you have permission.

Whatever a curious viewer would want to know: where your images came from, who wrote or performed anything you didn't make yourself, any AI involvement, and sources for factual claims. It doesn't need to be a bibliography — just enough for someone to trace it back if they want to.

No — insho isn't a marketplace. Links directly to a shop, store, or sales page aren't allowed in your credits or bio.

You're welcome to link to your Instagram, personal website, or portfolio if people want to find more of what you do.

Insho isn't a place for pornographic material — content whose purpose is sexual, not created or shared for artistic, historical, or educational reasons. This applies to images, video, and music alike.

This doesn't mean art with nudity is off-limits. A Renaissance painting, a classical sculpture, or a piece genuinely about the human form in an artistic or historical context is welcome, the same way it's welcome in a museum. The difference is intent and context, not the presence of a body: is the piece considering, documenting, or making an argument about something — or is sexual content the point of it?

If you're unsure whether something crosses that line, ask yourself whether a museum would display it. When in doubt, leave it out.

It can be removed — because a rights holder flagged it, or because we caught it ourselves. Repeated or serious violations can affect your ability to keep posting. This isn't meant to punish honest mistakes, but it's worth building your insho with sourcing in mind from the start.