When you use an image on a web site, you must obey copyright law and only use images you have an explicit right to use. So, searching Google Images is NOT the way to find them (unless you take additional steps shown below).

What You Can Use

The general rule of thumb is:

Only use images where a specific license has been given to the image allowing you to use it.

If you can’t find a license on the site where you see the image, don’t use the image.

Here are some places and ways you can find images that you can use (often without paying money):

Creative Commons

This is actually a set of licenses, most of which are designed to allow you to use media (they can apply to other media) but that also come with restrictions like:

• Attribution: you must credit the original author.
• Share-alike: If you modify the image to create your own work (derivative) then you also have to share your creation with a CC license.
• Non-commercial: you can’t make money off your use of the image.

Creative Commons Search

• https://search.creativecommons.org/ the Creative Commons search.

Stock Sites

Most stock sites charge you money for the right to use their photos. when working on a professional production with a budget this is a great place to go and can get you relatively cheap images (less than paying for a photoshoot) that are high quality and fairly compensate the photographers.

Sometimes there is not a budget, like on your class projects. These are sites with stock photography where either all or some are licensed to allow for use for free.

• Pexels: variety of images Http://pexels.com
• Unsplash: all images are free to use how you want: http://unsplash.com/
• Pixabay: variety of images http://pixabay.com/

Each of these sites have their own license for images and sometimes also have Creative Commons licensed images. When giving credit, look to see if there is a CC license and if not, you can write down Pexels License, or Unsplash License or Pixabay License depending on the site where you downloaded the image.

Public Domain

When an image is in the public domain it means it is free from all copyright restrictions and you are able to use it however you want. Still, it’s best to credit the creator if the person is known. This is similar to the CC0 license.

Here are some sites with public domain images:

• Library of Congress: https://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress The LOC has many photos released to the public domain. Flickr Feed for LOC
• New York Public Library https://www.nypl.org/research/collections/digital-collections/public-domain The library has thousands of images that are in the public domain (meaning there are no restrictions on how you can use them).
• Public Domain Archive http://publicdomainarchive.com/ : This site lists public domain images, not the same as LOC
• Smithsonian https://www.si.edu/openaccess The Smithsonian Institute has released 2.8 million images into the public domain that you can use.
• NASA http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/index.html

Unsplash has partnered with some of the above institutions and more to provide pictures through their platform. Read more here, and see some of the collections below:

• The New York Public Library https://unsplash.com/@nypl
• Boston Public Library https://unsplash.com/@bostonpubliclibrary
• Library of Congress https://unsplash.com/@libraryofcongress/
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) https://unsplash.com/@noaa
• United States Geological Survey https://unsplash.com/@usgs
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) https://unsplash.com/@cdc
• Europeana https://unsplash.com/@europeana/
• British Library https://unsplash.com/@britishlibrary
• Birmingham Museums Trust https://unsplash.com/@birminghammuseumstrust
• National Cancer Institute https://unsplash.com/@nci
• Austrian National Library https://unsplash.com/@austrainnationallibrary
• McGill Library https://unsplash.com/@mcgilllibrary
• Museums Victoria https://unsplash.com/@museumsvictoria

Google Images

Most Google Images can not be used. Google Images can only be used if you do the following:

• Search for an image: https://images.google.com
• Click Tools
• Click the Usage Rights drop down and select one of the “Labeled for …” options
• Double check that there is a Creative Commons license on the page where the image is located. Some images are listed incorrectly.
• Use Common Sense: sometimes people will upload an image they did not create to a site like Flickr and add a CC license to the image. This is not legal and does not give you the right to use the image. Look at other images by the creator and see if it seems probable that they created it.