Copyright is the legal right of an owner of intellectual property, if something is copyrighted you may not copy it without consent from the owner.

The owners of a copyright are protected by government law and granted rights to their property and distribution of said property. This protects their work and allows them to gain monetary return for their work.

Different types of content may be copyrighted such as books, films, artwork, sayings, poems, and songs. This means that the owner of whatever content is copyrighted is the only person that is legally allowed to distribute their work unless others are given consent.

To know if something is copyrighted you can visit www.copyright.gov/records and click "Search Public Catalog". This contains information about works registered since 1978.

If you are in doubt that your image or something you are using may be copyrighted and you cannot tell if it is, then don't use it.

Fair use is the copying of copyrighted material for use such as to comment on, criticize, or parody that work. It is only a limited amount of use from the copyrighted material, you may only use six seconds of a copyrighted song.

You may only use copyrighted material under these circumstances, any other use may get you in trouble with a court of law.

Here are a few websites to help you understand more about copyright and fair use.  How to Stay Out of Trouble  and Copyright Law 2020 The second link is quite long, but there is a table of contents so you can find an answer to your question easier.