Sourcing Copyright Appropriate Images for Remixing

How to source images from the public domain
and the Creative Commons.

First you need to understand what these terms mean.

Definitions from Wikipedia:

Public Domain: The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission.

Creative Commons Licenses: A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that the author has created. CC provides an author flexibility (for example, they might choose to allow only non-commercial uses of a given work) and protects the people who use or redistribute an author's work from concerns of copyright infringement as long as they abide by the conditions that are specified in the license by which the author distributes the work.

The main tools I use to search for images are Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, Google Image Search, Pixabay, YouTube, and the Library of Congress. If you are already familiar with how to search for Creative Commons and public domain images on these tools then you may not need to read the following.

Getting Started With Flickr

I need to find many copyright appropriate “free to use” images everyday. So I have developed a reliance on a few regular sources that I will share with you. If you know of other resources you think are useful and want to let me know about them please use this contact form. I probably won’t mention them here unless I start to rely on them. You might also find the page of resource links useful.

There are many websites that provide access to images in the public domain and the Creative Commons. Some are more comprehensive than others. Many of them are collections of other collections. I usually start my search at Flickr. Flickr is a giant photo sharing site. Flickr allows you to refine your search in a number of ways. Using the search box at the top of the page, enter a search term with or without quotes depending on the nature of the term, and then “Search photos”. It helps to put proper names in quotes, but you may have to try different versions of the name. As in “Donald Trump” or “Donald J. Trump”. Sometimes it is better not to use quotes. It depends on what you keywords are.

Then I usually select “Everyone’s photos.”

Then I select “Advanced” to access those tools.

In the Advanced tools, I choose large sized images. I am usually looking for images at least 2000 pixels wide.

Sometimes I will deselect vertical oriented images if they appear too narrow to fit the purpose. Most of the images that I use are 3:2 aspect ratio. I may enter a starting date if I am concerned that the images may appear out of date or if I am looking for images from a particular date. Other date information can be important. I may choose to limit the type of content to “photos.”

Next, I choose the type of licenses to display by making my choice under “Any license.”

I start with “U.S. Government works”

US Government works and specifically works created by employees of the Federal Government are generally in the public domain. You have to be careful because sometimes copyrighted images are used in Government works. Images from places like Shutterstock and other commercial image providers can show up under Government works. Also, the government can use contracted graphic artists. You can’t take anything for granted. After a while you can learn to spot the occasional errant commercial work. Many times this search comes up empty.

Next I change the search criteria to “No known copyright restrictions.”

The results under “No known copyright restrictions” tend to repeat some images from other categories and a lot of the results are from older out-of-print publications. Still this search often produces some results.

Then after looking in ““No known copyright restrictions” I select “All creative commons” as the license filter.

Most of the time I choose “All creative commons” because it produces all the Creative Commons images. If you narrow the selection it sometimes removes images that could be used. In other words, I feel the Flickr search does not always capture all possible results. I will find things on Flickr using Google Image Search that I can’t find in Flickr search results. The wider search requires me to review carefully the images that I do select. I look for the following types of licenses. I do sometimes refine the search to look for images where the license allows derivative uses and commercial uses.

Which Creative Commons Licenses Permit Ease of Reuse?

These first two Creative Commons licenses are the ones that I use the most: Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) and Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0) . They both require attribution. The ShareAlike version requires you to allow for remixing. Other than public domain works, these are the least restrictive licenses. You want to avoid the NC, non commercial, works for any commercial work. You want to avoid the ND, no derivatives , works for any remixing projects.

Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)
This license only asks for the work to be credited to the original creator. I prefer to link all images to the original sources if possible.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0)
This license requires the work to be credited to the original creator and for any new work using this work to be available under the ShareAlike license so people can remix it.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)
This license requires the work to be credited to the original creator and restricts the use to non-commercial work only. Using these images is only OK for non-profit organizations and perhaps in personal works that are not for sale.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Attribution-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-ND 2.0)
This license requires the work to be credited to the original creator and also restricts the work from being altered in any way. You don’t even want to crop these images. You can resize them proportionally. If they work as is for your purpose then you can use them.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/

The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
This license requires the work to be credited to the original creator, restricts the use to non-commercial work only, and also restricts the work from being altered in any way.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Public Domain Mark 1.0
This license permits the work to be used in any manner without attribution. I prefer to provide linked attribution whenever possible.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
(No Icon)
The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr or JaneDoeUser / Flickr (PD)

Public Domain Dedication CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)
This license permits the work to be used in any manner without attribution. I prefer to provide linked attribution whenever possible.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

The photo credit might look like this: JaneDoeUser / Flickr or JaneDoeUser / Flickr (PD)

Next Up, Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons Image Search is an excellent source for copyright appropriate images. I keep a bookmark to the search page. Before you enter your search term, select “Large” image sizes.

There is really not much to it. You can change some for the other search criteria if you think you need to, but most of the time that is not required. The same caveats apply with these search results. Trust, but Verify. You need to review all of your selections to be sure they actually meet your copyright criteria.

On to Google Image Search

I don’t feel that Google Image Search is as good as it once was. I still use it for Creative Commons and other types of searches.

Start by going to Google Search and entering a search term. This first result will be for Google’s “All” category. You need to select “Images” for image results. Then select “Tools” to see more options.

Under “Tools,” select “Size / Large” and under “Usage Rights” select “Creative Commons Licenses”

Here, as always, you need to review the results carefully to avoid false positives. The results are usually useful, but sometimes seem more shallow than Wikimedia results for Creative Commons images.

A tip to remember, you can see the image size after you make a selection in Google Image Search. Once you select the image, it appears in a sidebar. If you mouse-over the image, the size appears.

Google Image Search for Public Domain Sources

Google Image Search is a good tool for finding images in the public domain on US Government and US Military websites. Images produced by an employee of the US Government, including the military, are generally in the public domain. Google allows users to employ search operators that focus the search in those domains.

I have Google set as my default search engine on my web browsers. I usually start by entering the following in search operators directly into the search bar on my browser.

For US Government works search use “site:*.gov” with a keyword or phrase.
The word “site” must be in lower case followed by a semicolon. In this case the asterisk tells Google to look for the keywords in any US government website — any .gov domain.
Example: site:*.gov Nuclear Energy
If you wanted to search a particular US government department for “Nuclear Energy",” you need to find the domain name.
Example: site:energy.gov Nuclear Energy

This is all the same for US military websites.
Example: site:*.mil Ukraine War
Example: site: army.mil Ukraine War

When you search “*.gov” you will get images from a lot of US state governments. The only state that publishes in the public domain is Florida. You have to ignore results from all other states.

After you conduct your intitial “.gov” or “.mil” the first result will be for Google’s “All” category. You need to select “Images” for image results. Then select “Tools” to see more options and then select “Size / Large.”

Some other government domains include: dhs.gov, fema.gov, whitehouse.gov, senate.gov, house.gov, state.gov, usda.gov, nps.gov, aoc.gov, treasury.gov, justice.gov, doi.gov, commerce.gov, dol.gov, hhs.gov, hud.gov, dot.gov, energy.gov, ed.gov, va.go, and ustr.gov.

NOTE: Politicians don’t always follow copyright laws. Politicians use commercial images on government websites. I see a lot of Getty Images and AP Images published on house.gov and senate.gov. I don’t know if the Congress has a deal with image suppliers or if they just violate copyright because they can get away with it. This means that you have to be careful choosing government works. While photos taken by US Government employees are often in the public domain, you still have to worry about personality rights if you use an image in a way that might offend the subject. For example if you showed a photo of a recognizable soldier in an article about some illegal killing of civilians.

Other Image Collections

Here are some other image databases I often search.

Pixabay

http://pixabay.com/
Free images and videos you can use anywhere. All images and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0. You may download, modify, distribute, and use them royalty free for anything you like, even in commercial applications. Attribution is not required.

Library of Congress

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/
Perform a search. Choose "Gallery" view. Then select "Larger image available anywhere". Select an item. Then select "About This Item". Choose items designated "Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication."

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/
You can filter YouTube results by license type to view videos posted under Creative Commons. You can also search for videos produced by the U.S. Government. Screenshots from these videos can be used with attribution. Screenshots from videos about the subjects of stories can also be considered.

There are thousands of other sources of copyright appropriate images to use for remixing, but I am not going to list them all here. There are too many to try and keep up with. The above resources usually produce a result for me. If I have trouble finding the image I need, I will expand my search to other sources.

More Information on Copyrights and Fair Use

Harvard Law School Library

Finding Public Domain & Creative Commons Media
https://guides.library.harvard.edu/law/pd-cc
This guide will help you find and correctly attribute public domain and Creative Commons media for your project or presentation.

Creative Commons: About The Licenses

https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/
The Creative Commons copyright licenses and tools forge a balance inside the traditional “all rights reserved” setting that copyright law creates.

EFF's Teaching Copyright.org

What is fair use?
https://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/fair-use-faq.html
The Copyright Act gives copyright holders the exclusive right to reproduce works for a limited time period. Fair use is a limitation on this right. Fair use allows people other than the copyright owner to copy part or, in some circumstances, all of a copyrighted work, even where the copyright holder has not given permission or objects.

Below Are Some Simple Search FORMS

COMMISSIONS ARE WELCOME