Ask. If you find something you want to use you should identify and then ask the copyright owner whether they will allow you’re intended use. This can be time consuming - finding the owner and their contact information, contacting them, giving them time to consider it and get back to you, but if you have explicit permission you don’t need to worry any further about using the material.
There’s no set format a request for copyright permission has to take but we advise that you provide the copyright owner with the full detail of what you want to use and provide them with information about how you wish to use their material, giving detail of intended and expected audiences and how widely you would expect your work to be shared. Please note that if you intend to make your own resource available under a creative commons license you should provide detail of this also.
You should retain all permissions that have been attained in the course of producing your work and store them in a place where they are easy to retrieve should they be asked for. There is no central repository of copyright permissions and acquiring and retaining permissions is the responsibility of individual teams / staff members.
Although verbal permission is legally valid, you are strongly advised to make sure that such permission is granted in writing. This is because: Written permission is more difficult to retract than verbal permission. Both the rights holder and the user of work have written proof of the specific permissions that are granted to prevent disagreements at any later point. Organisations who are granted permissions, document, store and disseminate important rights-related information for the long term in accordance with internal policies and procedures such as record management policies and/or knowledge management policies.