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Legally Reusable Media

Page history last edited by Josh 3 years, 2 months ago

 

 

Educators ask students to demonstrate their learning using digital tools, but we often don't model, supply, or suggest copyright compliant resources. Legally Reusable Media is a collection of multimedia resources that students and teachers can use (in conjunction with each site's guidelines) to support learning. As you explore the curated digital citizenship, citation, and proper use of existing content, also note the benefits of open educational resources (OER) and encourage students to give back if they download/use content.

 
This QR code directs you to my Legally Reusable Media page.
 
DISCLAIMER: The resources on this site were originally curated by Josh Mika (2012-2015) for the purpose of educational use. The notes and suggestions below are independent interpretation, do not constitute legal advice, and are not sanctioned or supported by his employer. Due to the constant change inherent with the internet, the notes and suggestions may not be up-to-date with individual site User Agreements.

 


 

Fair Use

Many educators believe there is a specific amount or percentage of a work that one can fairly use.  The following Fair Use guidelines do apply for best practice when a student is using them to demonstrate learning.

 

 

 

 

Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship,and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

  1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
  2. The nature of the copyrighted work
  3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
  4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

(United States Copyright Act, 2009, para. 3-4)

Stanford University Libraries: Academic and Educational Permissions

Center for Media & Social Impact: Collection of Fair Use Tools

Wesley Fryer's chapter on copyright from: Playing with Media

Association of Research Libraries: Code of Best Practices in Fair Use

United States Copyright Office: Copyright Basics

 

When Fair Use Ends

 

According to Section 107 of the United States Copyright Law, however, these rules do not

apply if the copyrighted content leaves the learning environment (i.e., publishing online, public performance, etc.).

 

 

 

 

"The distinction between fair use and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined.There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission" (United States Copyright Act, 2009, para. 5).  In other words, once the content leaves the learning setting (as many educators strive to publish/share to an authentic audience), the author and/or publisher needs to revisit the four fair use questions (above).  This is yet another reason to use open educational resources and citation from the beginning.

 

NOTE: Not all US Government content is in the public domain. Most, yes, but there are always exceptions!

 

Enter Open Educational Resources (OER)

 

True open educational resources reside in the public domain and are free to use in a variety of ways. There are few sites that meet every criteria (see the 4Rs below), but the movement is growing.  For the purposes of this collection, however, I loosely use the term OER to also apply to sites offering multimedia resources, templates, and text that students and teachers can use to demonstrate their learning. Intermixed are sites that are truly OER and have content that resides in the public domain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True Open Educational Resources allow the user to:

 

Revise: Adapt and improve open educational resources so they better meet your needs;

Reuse: Use the original or your new version of the OER in a wide range of contexts;

Remix: Combine or 'mashup' the resource with other OERs to produce new materials; and

Redistribute: Make copies and share the original OER, or your new version, with others.

(Devaney, 2013, p. 14)

 

The original purpose of this site was to create a one-stop-shop for all kinds of digital media students and teachers could use in the educational sphere. It is naive of anyone to think, however, that in today's social media landscape and global sharing environment that the projects created will remain within the four walls of the classroom.  In most cases it is beneficial to share this learning and start creating a positive digital footprint.


Citing Your Sources

Best practice requires you give credit to the author of a work.  Depending on the type work and how it will be used will help to determine if one needs to 1) cite, 2) request permission, or 3) purchase.  Student projects for learning take advantage of Fair Use allowances, but this offers false security and students should learn how to properly use media in non-educational circumstances.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Creative Commons has done amazing things for authors and users of digital media.  Their licenses (version 4.0 launched late 2013) not only hold up in court, but they provide an easy guide for all users.  If I am interested in using a work or protecting something I've created, I turn to CC.  Their suggestion for Public Domain or CC0 (a.k.a., Creative Commons Zero) is a great way to give back to the Open Educational Resources (OER) community.

 

*The best part (arguably) is the Best Practices for Attribution section which outlines practices for digital citation without formal APA, MLA, etc. requirements.  Check it out for 1) title, 2) author, 3) source, & 4) license example and how digital citizens can properly cite content used in their projects.

 

Common Sense Media is the best site on the internet for netiquette, digital citizenship, and education for kids, teachers, and parents.  I love their collection of resources for teaching and learning!

"Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.  We exist because our nation's children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development . As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume." --from Common Sense Media's about page 


EasyBib is easily my favorite online citation tool for students.  Anything from elementary just learning to writing my dissertation at the doctoral level, EasyBib has some amazing tools for everyone.

 

*Check out my first citation review on the EasyBib app via iTunes U: A Guide to Digital Research and my second review via iTunes U: Creating & Sharing Open Educational Resources.

  NoodleTools is a solid runner up in practical citation for students.  The majority of the content is still text heavy compared to EasyBib and not made for the EC-5 student.  The Abilock family, however, has started to create many useful visuals for students and teachers to help users understand a bit more about the why behind citing sources (e.g., Show Me features).  Check out their YouTube channel explaining the variety of means to cite using their tool.

 

 

 

Search

The easiest way to search for open educational resources is to use an existing metasearch engine OR create your own (e.g., Google Custom Search).

 

 

 

Site  Grade  Description 
 

 

 

K-12* 

With one click lets you search Google, Yahoo, Flickr, Blip.tv and more for CC licensed material (uses tabs to let you explore).

 

*The only reason I put an asterisk* was due to the Flickr link and the potential for "artistic" photos that result.

 

 

 

 

K-12 

Add a Creative Commons Search to your Firefox search field. 

 

 

 

 

 

K-12 

"Wikimedia Commons is a media file repository making available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video clips) to everyone, in their own language. It acts as a common repository for the various projects of the Wikimedia Foundation, but you do not need to belong to one of those projects to use media hosted here. The repository is created and maintained not by paid archivists, but by volunteers." --from Wikimedia Commons welcome page 
 

 

 

 

 

 

K-12 

Archive.org is another all inclusive collection of archived multimedia with various Creative Commons licensees.  *Make sure you check the license before you use any content!  This is not a public domain site.

"The Internet Archive is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that was founded to build an Internet library. Its purposes include offering permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, people with disabilities, and the general public to historical collections that exist in digital format. Founded in 1996 and located in San Francisco, the Archive has been receiving data donations from Alexa Internet and others. In late 1999, the organization started to grow to include more well-rounded collections. Now the Internet Archive includes textsaudiomoving images, and software as well as archived web pages in our collections, and provides specialized services for adaptive reading and information access for the blind and other persons with disabilities."  --from Archive.org's about page

 

 

 

 

K-12*

Google Advanced Image Search - allows for users to filter out images labeled with Creative Commons licenses, although it may not be as thorough as Google Drive's plan to offer copyright free images through their online environment.  I would say that it is acceptable for students to use these images freely in their work without stress...but Google suggests you double check that the license for use is valid.  This is next to impossible, however, due to nonexistent linkage to image source.

"Before reusing content that you've found, you should verify that its license is legitimate and check the exact terms of reuse stated in the license. For example, most licenses require that you give credit to the image creator when reusing an image. Google has no way of knowing whether the license is legitimate, so we aren't making any representation that the content is actually or lawfully licensed..." --from Google Support Page

Not

Evaluated

Foter.com is really made for bloggers who need to search and add photos to forums or websites. "Foter has over 190 million free Creative Commons images from many online sources and the entire system is also available as a WordPress plugin and offers seamless use within the WordPress platform." --from Judy O'Connell

  K-12 Photos for Class is a great site for...

  

 

Images

The most commonly requested media are images and thankfully there are a plethora of sites.  Any site  I have not personally evaluated or used will say "not evaluated".  IF you use and/or recommend any of these sites, please let me know and I'll update this page.

 

 

Icon 

Grade

Description 

 

 

 

 

K - 12 

Morgue File provides free photos with license to remix.

UPDATE: "We do have a newly designed website and updated Terms and Conditions, but they haven't changed much. Model and property releases are no longer required. Each photo does not have individual info attached to it because they're all governed by one general, all-encompassing Licensing Agreement.

The major difference is, in regards to commercial use i.e. incorporating a photo into your company website or your company's marketing material, we ask that, if you desire to use a photo without editing it first, you credit the photographer with a text byline, such as "photo by <insert photographer's username> at Morguefile.com. If you first edit/alter the photo, it's not required to give attribution." --Emily @ MorgueFile

 

 

 

 

 

 

6-12 

"Flickr is the world's largest photo-sharing website; some of the photos are licensed under Creative Commons licenses and can be re-used depending on the terms of that license; not all are legally [reusable], so make sure you check the licenses if you find Flickr images in a different way that coming in through the CC Pool page. Also, keep in in mind that some Creative Commons licenses give you permission to mix and edit, some don't, so you need to read each license, or limit your search to definitely [reusable] image - anything marked as Attribution Only is perfect for you!) Three very easy to use tools for finding images and photos under particular Creative Commons licenses are FlickrCCCompFight and PictureSandbox.  These tools are generally easier to use than Flickr's own search function.  Also, if you're after just the high-quality CC-licensed photos on Flickr, then Behold is the tool for you (this is especially useful if you're preparing print-quality work). You can use Multicolr to find Creative Commons licensed images with specific colours (rather than tags, etc.). The Flickrleech tool is a great way to search for CC images on Flickr in bulk, but keep in mind you have to use advanced search settings, it doesn't limit results to CC images by default; FlickrStorm works in a similar way, so make sure you click 'advanced' to limit your results to CC." --from Tama Leaver's wiki description
 

 

 

K-12 

"Wylio is an image search engine designed to help bloggers and others quickly find, cite, and use Creative Commons licensed images. Wylio results only return images that are listed with a Creative Commons license. Wylio makes it easy to give proper attribution to the creator of the image by providing you with html code that includes attribution. All you have to do is copy the code and paste it into your blog post or webpage."  --from Richard Byrne
 

 

 

K-12 

"William Vann's EduPic Graphical Resource provides free photographs and drawings for teachers and students to use in their classrooms. Mr. Vann is an amateur photograph (a good one at that) and a teacher. Mr. Vann gives permission to teachers and students to use the images in any manner needed for instructional and learning purposes." --from Richard Byrne

 

 

 

 

K-12 

"The World Images Kiosk hosted by San Jose State Universityoffers more than 75,000 images that teachers and students can use in their academic projects. All of the images can be used under a Creative Commons license that requires you to give proper attribution when necessary. You can find images by using the search box or you can browse through more than 800 portfolios and groups organized by subject."  --from Richard Byrne

 

K-12

"ImageBase is a personal project of professional photographer David Niblack.ImageBase contains more than one hundred pages of images that Mr. Niblack has released for free reuse and redistribution. In fact, the top of theImageBase site says "treat like public domain." In addition to the hundreds of images that are available, ImageBase also offers nearly one hundred free PowerPoint templates."  --from Richard Byrne

 

K-12

"Photos 8 is a great place to find thousands of images that are in the public domain. These images can be used in any way that you and your students see fit. There are twenty-two categories of images of which the largest collections are of animals, birds, and sunsets." --from Richard Byrne

 

 

 

 

 

K-12

"This is a wonderful site for finding quality images to use in projects. Use these images for either personal or professional projects. Registration is not necessary to download them. All images are copyright free. Search images by name and filter by orientation (landscape or portrait) and image type (photo, clipart, or vector.) Be sure to use the filters at the top. Right click to download. Use good search terms to find the best pictures possible. You must know where to save images on your computer. Be sure to give credit to the person who took the picture and show their name wherever the image is used. Consider adding images to this site to increase the number of options and expand the ideas of Creative Commons. Adding images does require you to join the site (email required)." --from TeachersFirst

 

5-12

"Photo Pin is a search engine for Creative Commons photos that you can use (with credit), even if you are placing products on the web. Photo Pin has a beautiful and simple interface; filter your search by keyword and category. Clicking Get Photo also provides the attribution link for the photo and a choice of different sizes to download." --from TeachersFirst
 

K-12

"Picdrome.com is a growing Public Domain digital photography collection, free of copyright and licensed under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Public Domain Dedication. All images are free to download for personal, educational and commercial use, without restriction. Whether you are a designer, photo editor, student or blogger, we are offering daily free photographs. Make sure to check our disclaimer regarding the licenses for the pictures presented on this website." -- from Picdrome web site.

 

K-12 

 "Imageide@s offers high-quality, copyright-free digital images for students and educators. Our images use the Creative Commons licensing in this category:Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike. Attributions should read: Image(s) provided by imageide@s: http://myqei.org/ideas/" --from ImageIde@s web site.

 

 

K-12

"mages on this site are under creative commons and are free to use on web sites and other projects.
» We're always adding new pictures"  --from Animal Photos home page.
  K-12?  Use Google's Picasa photo sharing site advanced features on the left navigation bar to limit the results to Creative Commons and/or commercially reusable images. 
K-12 "Stock images, most of which are legally reusable (details about the various licenses are here)." --from Tama Leaver's wiki description 
 

 

K-12

"A good collection of legally reusable images, all of which can be used for educational purposes (and if you're using images beyond that context, make sure you read their license agreement)."  --from Tama Leaver's wiki description

 

Not

Evaluated

This custom search engine from Infotopia combines a variety of existing pubic domain sites (w/ ads), but states "cite your sources" at the bottom of the page.  "Infotopia is an academic search engine accessing only trusted websites previously selected by librarians, teachers and libary and educational consortia.  Infotopia is recommended for students, teachers, and, expeically, homeschoolers."  --from About Us page

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"PublicDomainPictures.net is a repository for free public domain images. Download high quality HD photos or upload your own. Make money from your hobby, gain popularity and improve your photographic and graphic skills. If you intend to use an image you find here for commercial use, please be aware that some photos do require a model or property release. Pictures featuring products should be used with care. The pictures are free for you to use and you should feel good about doing so. If you enjoy your visit, please tell your friends about Public Domain Pictures.net." --from home page.

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"...is not just another clipart graphic site!....  more than 6000 originalstock photos all for FREE! Free images is a high quality resource of digital stock photographic images for use by all. All images in their collection are free to use on websites and printed materials." --from eLearning Industry list

 

"Free images is a high quality resource of digital stock photographic images for use by all. All images in our collection are free to use on websites, printed materials and anywhere you need photos for illustration and design use." --from About Us page

 

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"...is made up of 132232 images with 182 sections organized into 3630 categories." --from eLearning Industry list

 

"FreeFoto.com is the largest collection of free photographs on the Internet (link back and attribution required). See FREE USE RULES.  The comprehensive, yet easy to navigate site, offers images that are free for on-line use, with higher quality versions available for sale. Also non-commercial users may download our web size images to use off-line in school projects, church services, cards, leaflets, etc. Basically if your off-line use is not commercial you can download our web size images for free." --from home page

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"...offers free high resolution stock photos for use in both personal and commercial design projects." --from eLearning Industry list

 

"Freepixels grants to you a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use and reproduce the images on the terms and conditions contained in this agreement. Images and digital creations downloaded from our website may be used for both personal and commercial purposes under the limitations of this license. Any magazine, newspaper or other publication, product, design element or promotional material they appear in may be sold or distributed in any way for an unlimited number of times." --from Terms of Use page

Not

Evaluated

"Photographs with the FreeStockPhotos.com name are owned and copyrighted Daniel Speck. Credit or a link must be given to FreeStockPhotos.com in all applications where they are used. Please read the Copyright Terms of Use thoroughly before downloading any images." --from home page

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"...is a website providing free-to use stock photography and illustrations. The stock.xhng operates as a hybrid of a picture library site and a social networking site; registered users may set up a personal profile, upload their photographic works to share with other users, write a blog and participate in online forums to discuss and critique each others' work." --from eLearning Industry list 
 

Not

Evaluated 

4FreePhotos "...is an online community of photographers who enjoy taking pictures and decided to share them with the public to use them for free in their private or commercial projects. They  hope you will find the collection of free and public domain images useful." --from eLearning Industry list 

Not

Evaluated

"...you can download royalty free photos and illustrations for websites, newspapers, magazines, video and TV productions, iPhone applications, PowerPoint presentations, forums, blogs and school work." --from eLearning Industry list

 

Richard Byrne recognized that the site also has a chart to help students cite the content used from Free Digital Photos which is helpful to give a clear answer on usage.  Not many sites do this, or if they do their answers are still vague.

 

 

 

K-12 

Don't get tricked by using the search tool at the top. Scroll down to the ten categories of free stock images below the advertisements. While this collection of free photos from the site are in the Public Domain, if you do explore their Free Images Blog, make sure you check the usage rights for each post/collection. Many of these require attribution...or more.

 

"Stock images are in the public domain." --from home page

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"...is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial." --from eLearning Industry list

 

"Image*After is a large online free photo collection. You can download and use any image or texture from our site and use it in your own work, either personal or commercial." --from home page

 

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

"...you can access 5,000 free photos, 8,000 free cliparts. All photos on this web site are public domain. You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial." --from eLearning Industry list

 

"All photos on this web site are public domain. You may use these images for any purpose, including commercial. But if some photo contains logos and products you need to be careful. Using someone else's trademark commercially can get you sued." --from home page 

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"...is a search engine for free photos. These come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo's license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos. Membership is free, without advertising, and allows you to rate, tag, collect and comment on photos." --from eLearning Industry list

 

"We are a search engine for free photos. These come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo's license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos. Membership is free and allows you to rate, tag, collect and comment on photos." --from home page

 

Not

Evaluated

Free stock photos and clip art.
 

 

 

 

K - 12 

A collection of many subtle backgrounds licensed for "attribution only".  Feel free to use for personal to commercial as long as you give the site/author credit.  Thanks to @ibooksauthortemplate for sharing this open source site through their iBooks Author Template videos. 
K-12 This site was recommended at an iBooks Author workshop and has mostly animal stock photos.

 

 

 

 

 

K-12 

Dreamstime is a pay-by-photo or subscription site, but they also have a hidden Royalty Free component that requires attribution.  LOTS of great stock photos in their free section, but make sure you provide attribution AND a link back to the site (provided in the text below the free photo).  "If you are a designer, here you can download high resolution Royalty Free stock images for free. If you are a photographer, this section offers you the opportunity to achieve great portfolio exposure by offering free images (one free stock image or more, up to you)." --from Free Stock Photo site.
 

 

Not

Evaluated

 

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

 

 

 

 

K - 12

Pics4Learning "...is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos & images for classrooms, multimedia projects, websites, videos, portfolios, or any projects in an educational setting." --from the home page.


 

 

6 - 12

"We are delighted to announce that over 100,000 high resolution images including manuscripts, paintings, etchings, early photography and advertisements are now freely available through Wellcome Images.  Drawn from our vast historical holdings, the images are being released under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) licenseThis means that they can be used for commercial or personal purposes, with an acknowledgement of the original source (Wellcome Library, London). All of the images from our historical collections can be used free of charge." --from Wellcome Library blog

 

 


Not

Evaluated

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

"BurningWell is a repository for public domain (free for any use) images. You are free to download, copy and use the photos you find here for any purpose. These free images were donated by photographers from around the world, do you have any photographs you would like to donate?" --from home page

 

Not

Evaluated

Dave's Nature Photos provides "...500+ photographs are FREE for your use as we are not doing it for monetary gain. However, if used commercially, please identify the source: (www.davesnaturephotos.com). If additional photos are needed, you may contact me via E-mail." -- from home page  IF you're going to use these retired school teachers from Idaho's images for commercial use, contact them for permission.

 

Not

Evaluated

"Imagebase.net is a collection of photos, mostly taken by David Niblack, that can be freely used for personal, commercial, non-profit, artistic, or creative purposes." --from about page


Not

Evaluated

"FreeMediaGoo.com was created for developers by developers. We provide a way for developers to gather free media that can be used in print, film, TV, Internet or any other type of media both for commercial and personal use. The content we provide is royalty free. No need for annoying links and no limits to the amount of free media you can use." --from home page

 

 

 

K - 12

One of my new favorite finds! Freerange Stock is all about giving back to the OER community and ad revenues go to the contributing photographers. Create an account and you can download the photographs without watermark. While they would like you to give attribution the terms of use clearly states you do not have to. "License Summary: You can do nearly anything with the images, commercial or not. Just don't redistribute them..." --from licensing page *Some suggestive photos, but worst I found was naked boy's butt at the beach.

 

"Freerange Stock was formed with the goal to provide quality stock photos for commercial and non-commercial use. For free. We feel that free stock photos can be good photos. Freerange is an advertising revenue supported photographic community - photographers get paid when users click on the ads that appear next to their submissions. Images on the site are either shot by Freerange Stock, drawn from Freerange archives, or contributed by a talented community of photographers. We feel that the images want to be seen and good photos should be available to everyone - so we give the collections away with the hope that they will be useful and be enjoyed." -- from about page

 

 

 

 

 

4 - 12 

I share FreeImages with some reservations because the terms of use is convoluted and leaves plenty of room for the author to claim copyright or charge for use at a later date. *I would always attribute any work from this site and highly recommend contacting the author before using this in any project that may end up on the web.

You can use the images for:

  • In digital format on websites, multimedia presentations, broadcast film and video, cell phones.
  • In printed promotional materials, magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, flyers, CD/DVD covers, etc.
  • Along with your corporate identity on business cards, letterhead, etc.
  • To decorate your home, your office or any public place.

--from license agreement

FreeImages also clearly states the (typical) ways you may not use the images in the agreement and reminds users that usage of the photo does not transfer rights.

 

K - 12

Unsplash adds 10 public domain / CC0 images every 10 days. This amazing site clearly states, "Free (do whatever you want) hi-resolution photos." --from home page.

 

 

 

 

K - 12

UVic's Language Teaching "...consists of about 3000 images useful in the teaching of basic vocabulary in a variety of languages. Its purpose is to provide a set of those graphics most basic and useful for low-level language-teaching, and at the same time, to make them as easily searchable as possible. Transparent an matte images included." --from Judy O'Connell

 

NOTE: "You may use GIF images from this library on your Website as long as you add an acknowledgement to the UVic Humanities Computing and Media Centre and Half-Baked Software somewhere on your site. If you have any enquiries about this clipart library or what you are permitted to do with it, please email us atmholmes@uvic.ca." --from UVic's home page

 

6 - 12

From Old Books dot Org (FOBO) is collection of scanned images by Liam Quin. The author claims is a collector of old books and has since scanned many of the images (which are now in the Public Domain) and uploaded to his site. His about page discusses his interest in payment for usage yet admits the Google Ads and donations pay for site maintenance. I hesitate to include this collection, however, the author does allow for non-commercial or educational use, but all available images include a webpage watermark.

*Due to the graphic nature of some images (e.g., naked crucified woman, etc.), I have labeled this junior high and above.

 

 

6 - 12

OpenPhotoProject is "...a photo sharing platform created in 1998 by Michael Jastremski. Contributors have offered their images free of charge under terms of Creative Commons licensing." --from about page. Each photo contains its own usage licenses and comes with a web citation code link below it.

*NOTE: 6-12 rating comes from several nude charcoal drawings and a random collage with random poses.

 

6-12

StockVault is another paid stock photo site that has a free stock photo side. This link will bring you to the free image search, but be cautious! Many of the free photos are in the middle of the page with paid StockPhoto selections above and below light dotted lines. The free images I found from the site were attached to this simple license agreement: "This photo is free for personal, educational and non-commercial usage. You may not use it to promote a product or a service." Check into attribution requirements.

*NOTE: Rating comes from variety of nude photos (mostly from stock photo advertisements) that may come up during certain keyword searches.

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

Stockio.com - "Whether you’re looking for stunning professional photos, high quality, editable vectors, stand-out icons, or unique videos, you will find your inspiration at Stockio. We keep track of your downloaded files and favorited items in your account, building up your own personalized portfolio of resources."

 

K-12

Little Visuals, similar to Unsplash, gives away "...7 hi-res images zipped up in your inbox every 7 days. Use them anyway you want." --from home page. If you click on the use sentence, the site links to Creative Commons Zero or Public Domain licensing.
 

 

 

Not Evaluated

Even with a great name, Death to the Stock Photo comes with several restrictions. A site made initially for bloggers, users of the photographs receive them via email signup. Personal photographers David & Allison cover their work with several restrictions, but ones that may deter use depending on your goal. In an attempt to summarize, you may use their photos freely unless you 1) redistribute them on another site, 2) alter and redistribute, 3) use them in a demeaning way, & 4) use them to promote a product. *Despite my summary, it's best if you review the restrictions based off your use of their product(s).

 

 

K-12

Gratisography contains "free high-resolution pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects. Click on an image to download the high-resoution version. New awesome pictures added weekly! All pictures were captured by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design and free of copyright restrictions."

 

Not

Evaluated

"Explore more than 30 million items from a range of Europe’s leading galleries, libraries, archives and museums" --from Twitter bio. Europeana's digitized content is not all in the public domain. Each component of media clearly labels the Creative Commons license. Upon reading their terms of use for content, Europeana recommends citation of the original work even if the work is CC0 or Public Domain.
 

 

Professional

Use

I'm hesitant to put the copyright powerhouse Getty Images in this list of "legally reusable media" because...well, their content is not what this site is about. If you are, however, looking for high quality, popular images you can embed for free-ish on your blog...Getty Images might just be what you're looking for.

This option to embed for free comes with a cautionary price: "Getty Images (or third parties acting on its behalf) may collect data related to use of the Embedded Viewer and embedded Getty Images Content, and reserves the right to place advertisements in the Embedded Viewer or otherwise monetize its use without any compensation to you." --from terms of use page. Personally, the concerns of advertising, 3rd party snooping, and artistic content make me wary from using this with K-5 educational projects.

 

6-12

Started in November, 2013, PicJumbo's website claims "totally free photos for your commercial & personal works" --from the home page. "Download FREE high-res photos for your design works (commercial & personal)" --from Twitter bio. Further clarification of these claims are available on their FAQ and Terms page*NOTE: I've given it a 6-12 rating due to the consistent alcohol related images and some suggestive content.

 

K-12

Tinyography contains "free iPhone pictures you can use on your personal and commercial projects. Click on an image to download the awesome full-resolution version. All pictures captured by Ryan McGuire of Bells Design and free of copyright restrictions." --from home page.

 

6-12

SplitShire is a collection of photos taken by Daniel Nanescu that are, "free for personal and commercial use" --from home page. *NOTE: I've given it a 6-12 rating due to the consistent alcohol related images and some suggestive content.

Not

Evaluated

New Old Stock claims to share, "vintage photos from the public archives free of known copyright restrictions" managed by Cole Townsend --from home page. I'm often wary of those who 1) download from other sites & 2) repost on their site (which is partially why I created my Legally Reusable Media) page.

 

K-12

In a project, "inspired by Unsplash", photographer Jay Mantri releases seven new photos every Thursday. He clearly states his photographs are CC0 or Public Domain. Similar to Unsplash, Jay Mantri's site does not catalog or allow searching, but he does have a GREAT archive button that allows for you to go back into his history.
 

 

 

K - 12 

Pexels is yet another CC0 photography site offering a growing variety of artistic photos. "All photos on Pexels are under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. This means you can copy, modify, distribute and perform the photos. The pictures are free for personal and even for commercial use. All without asking for permission or setting a link to the source. This means attribution is not required. All in all the photos are completely free to be used for any legal purpose." --from Photo License page

The only restrictions the site identifies: "Identifiable people may not appear in a bad light or in a way that they may find offensive, unless they give their consent."

 

 

 

K - 12 

Picography is another expanding collection of CC0 images by the Ireland based company, Hidden Depth. The site explains quite simply how to use any photography found here: 

 

USING A PHOTOGRAPH

  1. Photographs are provided free of charge and under the Creative Commons Public Domain CC0 licence.
  2. You agree never to advertise the photograph(s) as your own work or portray yourself as the author of said work.
  3. By downloading an image from Picography you agree to all terms and conditions stated on this page.

--from Picography's Terms page

K - 12 Travel Coffee Book is another site releasing 10 photos every 10 days (cataloged) under CC0 license. Focusing primarily on travel photos, the images are given a hashtag and (thankfully) archived on a Tumblr site!

 

K - 12

Designer Pics is a collection of photos curated by Jeshu John from Kochi, India. He would truly appreciate attribution, but explains that it is not necessary. "Please note all these photographs are captured by me and you can use them for your personal and commercial works absolutely free." --from About page

 

K - 12

Snapographic offers, "free stockphotos for personal and commercial use: You can use this high-resolution pictures on your personal and commercial projects for free. All pictures on the website snapographic.com were captured by Thomas Mühl and free of Copyright Restrictions (CC0 1.0 Universell) . A backlink is not necessary, but it would be nice. Have fun with it! ;)" --from home page

*Watch out for pop-up ads!

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

JeShoots is a collection of commercially viable stock photos from Jan Vasek. "All photos released under Creative Commons Zero license." --from FAQ page. 

 

Not

Evaluated

Pixabay is a popular landing spot and one I was surprised to find uses CC0 licenses. "Finding free images of high quality is a tedious task - due to copyright issues, attribution requirements, or simply the lack of quality. This inspired us to create Pixabay - a repository for stunning public domain pictures. Your source for free vectors, free drawings and free photos. You can use any Pixabay image without attribution in digital and printed form, even for commercial applications." --from home page.
 

 

Not

Evaluated 

Superfamous Studios contains mostly areal photographs, but there are other scenic shots mixed in. "All the photographs are available under a CC Attribution 3.0 license, meaning that you must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made." --from designskilz description

 

 

Not

Evaluated

Impressive collection of photos that I'm Free claims are, "A curated collection of free resources, all for commercial use." --home page. Further exploration finds that each photo is 'All the photos are free for commercial use, attribution to the creator is required. Most of the photos on this website are under a CC Attribution 2.0 license, make sure to check before you use any of the photos." --from designskilz description

*NOTE from Google search results

 

Not

Evaluated

Startup Stock Photos has no landing page (as of early 2015); it merely lists photos. I'm unaware of any licensing or attribution requirement outside of what designskilz notes: "All the photographs are available under a CC Attribution 4.0 license. A project by Sculpt." --from designskilz description
 

 

Not

Evaluated 

Albumarium has a great search tool to explore tagged images. Look via albums or search terms, but make sure you give credit! "You can anonymously share only your images or images that are under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license or any other license that allows such use (don't forget to give credits to the author). By uploading your image, you agree that the image will be under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license for future use. You also agree that we can use that image to promote Albumarium (but no other service or website) in any way." --from Terms of Service page

 

Not Evaluated

 

Magdeleine is a simple photo sharing site offering CC0 or Attribution license from user uploaded stock photos. *Make sure you check the license of each photo you wish to use!

Not

Evaluated 

The New York Public Library: Digital Collections is digitizing out of copyright images and slowly releasing them. "This site is a living database with new materials added every day, featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video, and more." --from database homepage

  Not Evaluated  StockSnap.io delivers "hundreds of high resolution images" every week. The link on the front page states, "free from copyright restrictions" and links to a CreativeCommons Zero license (i.e., public domain). 
Not Evaluated Good Free Photos states: "Free Photos (Public Domain Photos),stock Photos, Clipart, images, and Vectors. A large Public Domain photo repository with high resolution free photos and vectors. All copyright free stock photos and royalty free photos, and CC0 Photos. 23200 free and public domain photos, images, clipart, pics and vectors and counting."
Not Evaluated Foodiesfeed states: "Food photographers from all around the world share their photos under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license to help accomplish the ultimate goal of Foodiesfeed, to make the online space related to food more beautiful and eliminate all the ugly sterile stock photos that people still keep using." --about page
  Not Evaluated  "Beautiful, High-Resolution Free Photos with No Restrictions. For personal or commercial projects, all of our CC0 licensed images are completely free to use!"  --from homepage
  Not Evaluated  "Novapattern is a collection of well-designed patterns. You can use our free patterns with no restrictions, including commercial use. You can purchase and download premium patterns instantly under our simple non-exclusive license" (Creative Commons International Attribution 4.0) --from homepage
  Not Evaluated  "Undraw is a great collection of illustrations, provided free of charge, under the open-source MIT license, meaning you can use them for personal or commercial projects without attribution. Drawn in a flat style, and exportable as SVG, you’ll find characters, lifestyle elements, and tons of really useful UI illustrations."
--Webdesigner Depot #309 newsletter 12/28/17 
 

Not

Evaluated 

"All photos published on Reshot are free to use, both for commercial and noncommercial purposes. Go crazy! More precisely, Reshot grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Reshot for free, including for commercial purposes, without permission from or attributing the photographer or Reshot. This license does not include the right to compile photos from Reshot to replicate a similar or competing service. Questions? Check out our FAQ or read the legal jargon in our terms." --from license page
 
Not Evaluated "By this User License Agreement, Wave Break grants you, a non-exclusive, non-transferable, right to use and reproduce Content in the following ways, subject to the limitations set forth herein and in Section Three hereof: 
  • On websites, both non-commercial and commercial.
  • On business cards, business letterheads, brochures, and on business pop up displays for use in trade shows.
  • In the artwork for the packaging of any product provided that the print and/ or manufacturing.
  • In multimedia presentations and incorporated into film and video for television and/or internet broadcast.
  • As CD or DVD cover art and/or artwork, provided that the manufacturing or print run of such CDs or DVDs.
  • As part of editorial or advertising in textbooks, newspapers, books, book covers, magazines.
  • In eBooks."
--part of Standard License PikWizard page; read whole agreement before using
MAX PIXEL  Not Evaluated

Max Pixel is another Creative Commons Zero (CC0) site for use anywhere in the world. The Free Great Picture organization has collected or taken the pictures in this database off iPad 3 or iPhone 5 (2010-2011). While the latest update (as of 6-13-18) shows over 5,000 images, it also notes last update was in 2016, Regardless of all this, it appears that visitors can use these images for any purpose based off their licensing content under each image.
  Not Evaluated  NASA "...made their entire collection of images, sounds, and video available and publicly searchable online. Its 140,000 photos and other resources available for you to see, or even download and use it any way you like." --from DIY Photography
 

18+ y.o. 

RawPixel offers a public domain search engine boasting, "Best Public Domain Vintage Design Resources with a CC0 License • Photos and Graphic Illustrations" -- from public domain search page. *Hosts many historical works of art including artistic nudes, etc.

  All Ages  "Doodad’s Pattern Generator is a free, handy little tool that lets you create seamless, royalty-free patterns. Pick a base style, then tweak its colors, apply optional filters, and transform the size and rotation. The UI is charmingly comic-book in style, and when you’re ready, you can export your pattern as PNG, JPG, or SVG." --from Webdesigner Depot 12-31-20
  All Ages  "Tabbied is a fun pattern generator for fans of modern, geometric shapes that produces designs straight out of the Memphis playbook. Pick one of the presets, and play with its colors and key variables like the number of elements, the underlying grid, and drop shadows, then export the design as a PNG. It’s free to use." --webdesigner depot 1-7-21
     

*start after "Cupcake" http://www.designskilz.com/free-photos/ 

*Add resources from here: https://www.typeform.com/blog/ask-awesomely/free-pics/

*Refine choices using Tony Vincent's http://learninginhand.com/blog/free-clipart-and-photos

*Add https://negativespace.co

 

 

 

Museums

Major museums around the world are digitizing a variety of resources made available online.

 

 

North & South America

 

Not Evaluated
For the first time in its 174-year history, the Smithsonian has released 2.8 million high-resolution two- and three-dimensional images from across its collections onto an open access online platform for patrons to peruse and download free of charge. Featuring data and material from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, the new digital depot encourages the public to not just view its contents, but use, reuse and transform them into just about anything they choose—be it a postcard, a beer koozie or a pair of bootie shorts. And this gargantuan data dump is just the beginning. Throughout the rest of 2020, the Smithsonian will be rolling out another 200,000 or so images, with more to come as the Institution continues to digitize its collection of 155 million items and counting.
 

 


Not

Evaluated

 

"Smithsonian Digitizes & Lets You Download 40,000 Works of Asian and American Art"--Open Culture

*NOTE: Use appears to be limited to noncommercial only. If users are downloading artwork for commercial gains, the terms of use requires contacting (see site for email). "For full legal details, please see the Smithsonian’s terms of use for digital assets."


 

Not

Evaluated

 
Professor Loren C. MacKinney (1891-1963) devoted much of his career to expanding his photographic collection of medieval medical illustrations and producing scholarship on a wide variety of medical topics including anatomy, bloodletting, dentistry, animal doctors, ethics, nudes, pestles, tranquilizers, and many more. His major works on medieval history and medieval medical illustrations include Early Medieval Medicine (1937), The Medieval World (1938), Bishop Fulbert and Education at the School of Chartres (1957), Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts (1965), and more than fifty articles concerning mostly medical topics. "This site is intended for educational purposes. The manuscripts represented are not held by the University of North Carolina. Those seeking provenance, reproductions and permissions should contact the holding repository." --about the collection
 

 

Not

Evaluated

Free to Use and Reuse Sets: "This page features items from the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use. Each set of content is based on a theme and is first featured on the Library's home page.

 

These sets are just a small sample of the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The digital collections comprise millions of items including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. Whenever possible, each collection has its own rights statement which should be consulted for guidance on use. Learn more about copyright and the Library's collections."

--from home page

European

 

Not

Evaluated

 
 

England's National Education Network Gallery has a collection of over 500,000 images for non-commercial use in education. Users can view and download images, video, and audio for various projects. Create an account with the site and give back by donating your own media for other teachers and students to use around the world!

"IMPORTANT NOTICE: All the resources in this Gallery have been provided freely for Educational use only. These ARE NOT copyright free: the copyright in the resource is retained by the resource owner and any commercial use is explicitly excluded." --from Help Topics: General page

*NOTE: My rating of 6-12 was derived from perusing and randomly finding a drawing of a man groping a woman's chest. I figured if I just stumbled upon this, there may be other, slightly questionable content.

 

Not

Evaluated

The British Museum released "...over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books [digitized] by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain."  - From about page
 

Not

Evaluated

 

**Use this link to advanced search for public domain only**

“The launch of Open Content will mark a new stage in Paris Musées’ digitisation [sic] policy,” the institution said. “It will contribute to enhancing and improving the way our collections are made available and will strengthen the measures taken to ensure better public access to art and culture as well as increasing visibility and understanding of the works in our municipal collections.” 

“Making this data available guarantees that our digital files can be freely accessed and reused by anyone or everyone, without any technical, legal or financial restraints, whether for commercial use or not,” the statement read further. “Digital files that contain works that belong in the public sphere under a CCØ (Creative Commons Zero) licence will be made available to everyone via the Paris Musées’ Collections portal.”

 --from The Next Web 1-30-20 article

Asia/Pacific

 

Not

Evaluated

 
 

Africa

 

Not

Evaluated

 

Australia & New Zealand

 

Not

Evaluated

The Museum of New Zealand released over 30,000 images with Creative Commons licenses for educators and noncommercial users.

"Over 14,000 images are available under a Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND. If you aren’t familiar with Creative Commons it can look a little complicated, but what it means is you can use those images if attribute the image (we help you do that at each download page). You can’t make money from using the image, and you can’t change the image. Might sound a little restrictive but there is plenty you can still do, like use it in your homework, on your blog, print it and hang it on your wall…" --from Te Papa Blog

     

 

ClipArt & Icons

Sometimes you just need some clipart and OER clipart sites are hard to come by.

 

 

 

 

K -12

"Open Clip Art Library (OCAL) is the largest collaborative community that creates, shares and remixes clipart. All clipart is released to the public domain and may be used in any project for free with no restrictions." --from Open Clip Art Library home page
  K -12  "Looking for some new free clipart to add to projects, presentations, and websites? With over 10,000 images and a keyword search function, IconBug makes locating and using clipart easy. Simply click on the image to download. With Mac, the image automatically downloads as a PNG. With a PC, you need to choose to save the image. Either way, it is easy to use and there is no need to worry about image copyright. Each image page specifically tells you whether icons/clip art are free for personal use, for commercial use, or both. Note that many do require that you give credit via link back to their site." --TeachersFirst Summary 
  K - 12  Classroom clipart expands the variety of clipart available to the elementary school classroom.  These simple graphics are useful and free to use in a noncommercial setting.

 

 

 

 

6 -12

*Freepik admits that bots comb the internet for "free" visual media that is then searchable through the site.  Due to this admission, however, the algorithm could make a mistake and/or some of the findings could potentially be copyrighted and appear to be free.  While this is a relatively small possibility, however, it may be worth citing the search engine and date just in case the author is only opening the content up for a limited time.

 

"Freepik is a search engine that helps graphic and web designers to locate high quality photosvectorsillustrations and PSD files for their creative projects.  Freepik tracks and locates free graphic content on the Internet and it displays the results in an orderly layout for easy access. Freepik makes it easier for you to find the files you need without manually searching dozens of websites." --About Us

 

**Despite combing the internet for free content, search results also show Shutterstock paid images.  These results are placed on top and can demonstrate some adult content.

 

K-12

The Noun Project is an icon playground where designers and users can find simple, monochromatic icons for a variety of uses. According to the Frequently Asked Questions page:

"All the symbols are free to use, as long as you properly attribute the designer. You only pay if you don’t want to follow the attribution requirements for icons licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY)." --from FAQ Licenses page

 

 

K-12

I'm rather skeptical of FreeDesignStock site overall. While it's been around for a few years, there is little to no information about the site operators or user agreements. I left my profile bare bones as I looked around at the relatively few icons, web elements, and artwork. 

 

Not sure this is worth your time, frankly, seeing as there's little to no content to share and more questions about the owners/operators than answers.

Not Evaluated "Feather is a collection of simply beautiful open source icons. Each icon is designed on a 24x24 grid with an emphasis on simplicity, consistency and readability." --from Usage download They are licensed under an MIT designation: "A short and simple permissive license with conditions only requiring preservation of copyright and license notices. Licensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different terms and without source code." Allowed to be used for commercial, private, modification, and distribution. --from License download.

Not

Evaluated

"Unicons is a collection of 1000+ vector icons. The icons are comprehensive, and consistent, clearly communicating everything from standards like security and comments, to a telescope and even a wheel barrow. As well as being free, it’s also open source." --from Webdesigner Depot
Not Evaluated

"useAnimations is a free set of multi-platform animated icons for use with the Lottie Framework and After Effects. The library is fully responsive, and compatible with all modern browsers. There are dozens of customizable icons, from media files to hamburger menus." --from Webdesigner Depot

*Check out the "free" icon usage on their "Licensing and Terms" page.

 

 

Music

Outside of images, audio/music is often the next most important OER that students and teachers request.  Thankfully there are many resources offering Creative Commons licensed music for learning and non-commercial projects.

 

 

 

  K-12 

FreePlayMusic has a wide variety of open source music for use with digital media projects.  

 

The only license that cost $0 are for in class use only: "This license is for in-classroom use ONLY.TEACHERS - you may grant the right for your students to use this material provided that it is part of their school work or project. You may also use this material for LIVE presentations at school or on-campus. Any other use of our music OUTSIDE the classroom requires that you obtain a license (this includes use on the internet, use of our music at events, school concerts/fundraisers)." --from FreePlayMusic's license page

  K-12 

Incompetech is Kevin MacLeod's attribution only collection for any use (as long as you give him credit).  GREAT site for OER music and I have to tip my hat in KM's direction!

 

 

 

 

 

 

K-12 

MobiGratis is a "...a resource for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short."  --from site's home page  These selections are from the famous artist, Moby, and include over 150 of his personal works.  "To begin just create a new account, browse the catalog and fill in your application for the tracks you would like to use. You should receive a response to your application within 24 hours."

 

 

 

 

 

Not Evaluated 

OpSound - "All sounds in the Opsound pool are released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (a copyleft license similar to those used in the free and open source software communities) or are placed in the public domain (the license information for each song can be found under the song link). This means you are free (and encouraged) to download works, make copies, share them, include them in other works, remix and rearrange them, and even sell them." --from Opsound's license page

 

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

 

DigCCMixter &  ccMixter - Songs, licensed using different Creative Commons types, featuring one or more samples of previous work (all legally sampled).  While all media is licensed under Creative Commons, be sure to check the individual license of the work to make sure you can use it in the style you are planning.

 

"ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want." --from CCMixter about page

 

 

Not

Evaluated

 

Jamendo - songs under various CC licenses.  Easy to download (no sign-up required) and search tool is strong.  Stay away from PRO unless you're doing something commercial.

 

 

Not

Evaluated

The Free Music Archive - "an interactive library of high-quality, legal audio downloads.  The Free Music Archive is a continuation of that purpose, designed for the age of the internet. Every mp3 you discover on The Free Music Archive is pre-cleared for certain types of uses that would otherwise be prohibited by copyright laws that were not designed for the digital era.  These uses vary and are determined by the rightsholders themselves (please see our FAQ) who feel that allowing a degree of free cultural access is beneficial not only to their own pursuits, but to our society as a whole." --from FMA's about page *Check license of each individual song!

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

Audionautix - "All music in this online collection created by Jason Shaw. Released under Creative Commons License 3.0. You are free to use the music (even for commercial purposes) as long as you provide a link to this website from yours OR credit us with, "music by audionautix.com". Must be part some other created works. No further permission is required." --from home page 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

AudioFarm states, "Many audio content owners on audiofarm.org choose to release their audio content underCreative Commons licenses, which give you the legal right to do things like use their music in your videos." --from Legal Music for Videos page

 

 

Not

Evaluated

Free Production Music claims, "We offer a wide variety of 100% free production music in ten genres: cinematic scores, classical, corporate, country, easy listening, electronic, hip-hop, international, pop and rock. We're committed to helping you find the perfect song for your video, movie, film, video game, or media project. Our music comes with a royalty-free license allowing you to use the music in all types of productions for worldwide distribution, forever. There are never any fees." --from home page

 

 

Not

Evaluated

PacDV offers free use of their music as long as you attribute the work and link to the original site/score.

 

"You may use these tracks free of charge in your video, film, audio and multimedia productions. All we ask is that you link back to our site or mention "Music by www.pacdv.com/sounds/" in your credits. Please, note that you are not allowed re-sell these music tracks to others, post on a web site for download (as downloadable music tracks), or link directly to the individual music tracks on our server." 

 

Not

Evaluated

Soundclick offers both paid and Creative Commons licensed music.  In order to filter for royalty free content, use the drop down menu in the yellow navigation bar and choose "Creative Commons (free)".  It is still advised that you explore the artist's designation (under columns "commercial" & "modifications") before you choose to use this and suggested you give attribution.  WARNING: Explicit Lyrics
 

 

Not

Evaluated 

PublicDomain4U houses many songs that were written prior to 1922 and are therefore in the public domain.

 

"Publicdomain4u.com is providing access to this music for educational purposes. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of music. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use any music on the site." --from about page

 

Not

Evaluated

Derek Audette offers a collection of dark, moody instrumentals for attribution only.  
 

 

Not

Evaluated 

Music4YourVids contains a variety of material created by Rick VanMan for attribution only.

 

Not

Evaluated

SonnyBoo is a collection of material created by Peter John Ross for attribution only use.

 

Not

Evaluated

Linorise offers a variety of genres for attribution only.

 

"The music is licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0. If you want to use this license, simply attribute the music in your project (website, movie, YouTube, etc.) as is reasonable to the medium.There is no cost to use music under the Creative Commons License." --from copyright conditions page

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

"All of the music in our free section...can be used for just about any project where music is needed. For example, our music has been used for the following:

  • YouTube & Vimeo
  • Educational projects
  • Movie trailers
  • Movies
  • TV productions
  • Backing tracks for musicians to play along to
  • Surround sound ambient Blu-Ray discs (www.bluscenes.com(

We simply ask that you add a link in the text to your video that credits us as:

Music: http://www.purple-planet.com"  --from Using our Music page 

 

Not

Evaluated

Give Life Back to Music is an...eclectic collection of material published directly to the public domain. Warning: Explicit Lyrics! --from the FAQ page.

 

 

K - 12

FreePD: Music is another Kevin MacLeod project:

"So you've scoured the internets in search of music recordings in the Public Domain and found bupkis... If only someone would have gone out and found all of the decent Public Domain recordings and collected them in one spot! If only. Yes, it was a joy trying to slog through 45,000 Public Domain sermons to find this stuff. You're welcome. -Kevin MacLeod" --from the FreePD home page. *Ignore the ads at the top; left genre navigation bar is the way to explore.

     

 

 

Sound Effects

If you can't record it yourself, check out these resources for sounds and audio effects.

 

 

  K-12 

The FreeSound Project - Great range of samples, all licensed under a Creative Commons Sampling license.

 

"Freesound aims to create a huge collaborative database of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps, ... released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse." --from about page

 

Not

Evaluated 

SoundSnap.com - A bunch of completely free (public domain) sound effects and samples arranged by topic.

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

SoundBibe is well organized and clear about the licensing and use of the sound effects found here. 

 

"SoundBible.com offers free sound clips for download in either wav or mp3 format. We offer free and royalty free sound effects and clips for video editors, movie scores, game designers, and weekend sound warriors. We update weekly so be sure to return for one of the best copyright free sound resources on the net. Downloads are totally free and upfront with large download buttons to prevent confusion." --from home page 

     

 

Video

I'd wager video is probably top three needed open source content for educational projects, but for alphabetically it's last.  Content sharing sites like YouTube or Vimeo have some Public Domain specific media to share, the majority are held through other sites.

 

 

 

K-12

"Videezy is a community that provides a place for professional and amateur videographers to download and share free HD stock video footage and free b-roll footage with each other. All the video clips you will find here are HD quality and completely free to use in your projects. Shared under a Creative Commons license or part of the public domain." --from home page
  K-12 

"WorldClips.TV has the unbeatable offer of unlimited use of over 5000 broadcast quality clips from 50 world destinations for less than you would pay for a single clip from other providers, ONLY $25 per year!" --from about page

 

YES, this site does cost money if you're interested in legally using their b-roll, but it is a small price to pay for a global collection of stock footage [opinion].  

 

Not

Evaluated 

Not sure if you can reuse or remix these, but Open Culture has a lengthy list of free movies to watch online.  "We have listed here 575 quality films that you can watch online. The collection is divided into the following categories: Comedy & Drama; Film Noir, Horror & HitchcockWesterns & John WayneSilent FilmsDocumentaries, and Animation." --from movie page

 

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

"The Open Video repository provides video clips from a variety of sources, especially various video programs obtained from U.S. government agencies such as the U.S. Records and Archives Administration and NASA. Although the government agency videos were produced with public funds and are freely available from the Archives, no copyright clearance has been obtained for audio or video elements in these productions. We encourage researchers to use the data under fair use for research purposes. Those wishing to use these video clips in any commercial enterprise must bear the burden of obtaining copyright clearances." --from about page 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

The Internet Archive's Moving Images collection has a plethora of digital movies uploaded by users spanning clasic films, news, cartoons, and concerts. "This library contains digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts. Many of these videos are available for free download. Check our FAQ for more information."  --from welcome page.

 

Not

Evaluated 

Gotta love the government's policy on content created going into public domain! Oh, you need free, public domain content for your video from nature or national monument?  Check out the National Park Service's B-roll page! "All video files in this archive are "public domain" images. You are free to use these videos without a release from the National Park Service. However, the videos must not be used to imply National Park Service endorsement of a product, service, organization or individual without permission from the National Park Service." --from NPS B-roll Page 

 

K - 12

"StockFootageForFree.com is a website dedicated to providing completely free stock footage and stock video from around the world. Our footage can be downloaded instantly and incorporated into any type of project – personal or commercial. There are never any fees for using our footage. Our footage comes with a 100% royalty free license allowing you to use the footage in all types of productions, for worldwide distribution, forever." --from About page

 

Not

Evaluated

"At BottledVideo.com all our stock footage is 100% free stock footage to download and use in your next video production At BottledVideo.com all of our free stock footage is intended to promote and support the creativity of the independent producer."*NOTE: Standard video is free, but HD video will cost. 

 

 

Not

Evaluated

I hesitate to include VideoBlocks on this page, considering it's a subscription site, but it claims to have a wide collection of open source content. Even if it doesn't, a monthly $80 fee to download ANYTHING (audio or video) is very enticing! I did not register because one gets 7 days free once registering and I'm saving that for when I have a serious project that needs b-roll. ;-)
 

 

K - 12 

"...royalty-free video marketplace Pond5 launches the Public Domain Project in order to solve this problem, opening up to the public a massive, thoroughly-organized treasure trove of about 80,000 copyright-free video clips, photos, sound recordings, and 3D models." --from The Creators Project blog. *NOTE: To truly search public domain content, use the search field. Navigation menus at the top will take you Pond5's collection of paid content.

Look over resources: http://www.barbarawaxer.com/find-media-online/video-and-animation

 

   

 

 

3D Images

Creating your own 3D images (e.g., using Google Sketchup) is best practice, but there are emerging open source sites offering Creative Commons Licensed 3D images.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

K-12

One of the best places to start is Trimble's 3D Warehouse which hosts a variety of file types made with Google's Sketchup program. The terms of service can always be updated, but here are the following snippets that appear to demonstrate OER usage:

 

"Currently all Models are made available and Distributed through 3D Warehouse free of charge. If Trimble implements a payment system, Trimble will post additional terms to these Terms of Use describing the ways in which Models may be purchased and sold through 3D Warehouse." --from Terms of Use

 

"...the Developer grants you a limited, worldwide, royalty-free, non-transferable and non-exclusive license (without the right to sublicense) to download, reproduce, adapt, make derivative works based on, modify, publish, publicly display and perform, distribute, make, sell, offer to sell, import, and use Models for the uses expressly authorized below. " --from General Model License

 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

OurBricks is "...This is a small but growing site with almost all models in COLLADA format. One unique feature of this site is that it supports animated COLLADA models..." --from Wonderblog
 

 

Not

Evaluated

3DVia has a variety of 3D models connected to Creative Commons licenses.  "This site requires you to sign up, but it is still free. You can download various 3D models, made by people like you. You can also upload your models, so that you can access them anywhere and share them with others. It is super easy to search by file type, which is a huge plus! They also have a very large selection to choose from." --from Wonderblog *Check CC license per image
 

 

 

Not

Evaluated 

The link to TurboSquid's database is for "free" 3D images only. *Warning: Anatomically correct 3D images are available on an open search.

 

"This site has 3D models you have to pay for plus free ones. The search for free brings up over 7800 results, so the selection is good. Finding compatible formats is a little harder. There is no good search for them, so you will just have to look manually. The format types are listed in the thumbnails, however. If you do opt to pay for a model, TurboSquid will convert the model to .dae for no extra charge." --from Wonderblog 

     
     
     

 

 

How to License and Mark Your Material

 

Apple's Motion Templates

http://www.motionvfx.com/

--click on store and then "free" on left side

 

OER Textbooks

http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/08/01/hunting-the-whole-enchilada-6-excellent-sites-for-free-digital-textbooks.aspx

Add: OpenEd https://www.opened.io

 

Works Cited

United States Copyright Act. (2009, November)United States Copyright Law  (United States, Library of Congress, Copyright). Retrieved August 19, 2013, from http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.pdf

 

ToDo

These items have been recently discovered/suggested and are in the holding pattern until reviewed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Public_domain_image_resources

 

http://www.photosforclass.com

--Searches Flickr using safe search terms

http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Images/FreePicsOfTheWeek

--Fotolia is a paid site, but apparently has a free image section. How free?

"Download 3 high-definition stock photos and illustrations for free! Our royalty-free licenses allow you to use these free images anywhere in the world, for as long as you like."

http://www.unprofound.com/

--Apparently free site for images?

http://www.istockphoto.com/search/lightbox/13454712#

--Another paid site with free images?

http://www.pixeden.com/free-design-web-resources

--free web design images?

https://creativemarket.com/free-goods

--Creative Market's free section?

http://publicdomainarchive.com/

--great collection of historical images!

http://publicphoto.org/

--public domain photos site

http://theappendix.net/blog/2014/1/the-key-of-hell-a-sorcery-manual-from-the-enlightenment

--the Appendix blog; not sure if it's OER or not

https://www.getty.edu/about/opencontent.html

--Getty Images Open Content collection

http://publicdomainreview.org/about/

--VERY interesting site; might have clues/openings to a lot of content?

http://www.britishpathe.com/

https://www.youtube.com/user/britishpathe/about

http://www.historytoday.com/blog/2014/04/british-pathe-puts-thousands-films-online

--Both collections of the British Pathe OER content

 

OER Texts

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/04/13-great-resources-for-finding-free.html

Open Content: OER Commons, Engage NY, OpenStax (HS), Gooru, Edmodo Spotlight, Learning Registry, Curriki, ISLE, Amazon Inspire (Request Access), CK-12, Other OER Providers, stem4teachers.org, OpenUp Resources,

 

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