Where to Find Free Content

Here is some information and links on where to find images, text and other media that you can use in your projects.

Text

For the most part I recommend that you use Wikipedia.

If you find a site that has high-quality content, let me know and I may add it here.

Video

YouTube

You can embed YouTube videos if they allow that.

VIMEO Creative Commons Video: https://vimeo.com/creativecommons

Audio

I will add a couple more here if needed. For now,

These sites are by Kevin Mcleod

Bensound has royalty free music that you can use as long as you credit them.

Images

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).

If you need a placeholder image there are sites you can use. They give you a URL use in the src attribute of the image:

Here are two sites.

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 Searches

  • https://wordpress.org/openverse/ the Creative Commons search is now called OpenVerse and is part of WordPress.
  •  http://500px.com/creativecommons
  • Flickr Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/
  • http://images.google.com 
  • Google Images can be used if you do the following:
    • Search for an image
    • 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.

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.

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.

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:

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