Public Domain / Free-License / Royalty-Free Materials
Materials in the public domain may be freely used without asking for copyright permission because they are not copyrighted. In contrast, licensed materials are copyrighted. In the websites below, licensed materials are usually free for limited use as long as you use them within the requirements of the license (i.e., educational/non-profit use, providing attribution, etc.). If you decide to use licensed materials (such as creative commons materials) outside the purvey of the license, you need to ask permission. Some of the websites below provide royalty-free works. In this case you usually pay a small upfront fee in order to use the material for limited purposes.
The websites below include a mix of public domain, licensed, and royalty-free materials. You will need to check carefully the terms of use provided in each website. Some of the websites require that you ask permission, while others do not as long as you use within their stated terms. Before using any material, read and follow any information about restrictions on use or applying for permission to use.
This page is provided for your convenience, but we cannot make formal legal determinations or guarantees regarding use of these materials. Even legal experts can disagree about the definition of "public domain," or the terms of a license and/or royalty-free work.
Copyright Free Media
Open Source, and Student Use Images and Media
Teacher-librarians Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson have assembled links
to sources of unrestricted images, photos, clip art, text, and music, as
well as a few sources with varying restrictions. Note that some websites
in this list charge for use of their materials.
Creative Commons
Creative
Commons provides a process for permitting creators of works to license
them (for free) or release them into the public domain-where they may be
freely used-sooner than the expiration of copyright law protection. For
licensed materials, creators may place some restrictions on the use of
these materials, which include audio, images, music, video, software,
and text. By using creative commons licensing on your own work, you can
also provide clarification for others who wish to use your materials.
To begin a search, click on
"Search CC Licensed Work" at the top of the
Creative Commons homepage.
Free Pictures
This British
website offers links to a large number of photos and pictures. The site
has a process for requesting use of the images and restrictions on the
number of images that can be used on a website. They state that they
"particularly encourage their use for educational purposes."
Image*After
This site
features free images and textures. In the "Guide" section on the main
page, click on "What about your terms"? to read the circumstances under
which images and textures may be used.
MorgueFile
This image
archive can be searched by keyword. Searchers can limit results to
photos or illustrations. Click on "Terms" to read about restrictions.
Stock.XCHNG
Advanced
searching permits visitors to this Hungarian site to find images by
browsing categories or searching for topics by keyword. Click on "Terms
of Use" at the bottom of the page to learn about restrictions.
For related copyright websites, see the Internet Bookmark category Copyright.
The Library wishes to thank Martine Courant Rife for contributing to this webpage.
