LIBRARY
Copyright Guide: Open Use Media Resources
This guide will inform you of copyright and issues pertaining to the use of copyrighted materials. It will not supply legal advice.
Open Use Media Resources
The searchable databases below include images, audio, audio and video resources that are in the public domain or shared with open use licenses. These resources can be used in presentations and multi-media projects within the terms of the licenses without requesting permissions.
Open Use Image Collections
- American Memory Collection (Library of Congress)An internet based archive for public domain image resources, as well as audio, video, and archived Web content.
- Cleveland Museum Open Access CollectionThe Cleveland Museum of Art released more than 34,000 digital images of public domain works in high resolution.
- ClipArt ETCThe Florida Center for Instructional Technology collection of clipart for use in non-commercial, non defamatory educational projects subject to minor restrictions.
- ClkerAn online sharing service where users share free public domain vector cliparts, or vector cliparts from public domain photos.
- Creative Commons SearchSearch for images that are in the public domain OR have been granted creative commons status.
- FreepikA search engine of free vector designs. The majority of the resources offered at Freepik can be used for free with attribution.
- Openclipart"Each artist at Openclipart releases all rights to the images they share at Openclipart." Images are free to use for any purpose, commercial and non commercial.
- Pexels.comImages on Pexels are released under Creative Commons CC0 and can be used for personal or commercial purposes freely.
- PixabayImages and videos on Pixabay are released free of copyrights under Creative Commons CC0 and can be downloaded, modified, distributed, and used them royalty-free.
- Wikimedia CommonsAn online database of freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute.
Open Use Audio Collections
- ccMixterA 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.
- freesoundCollaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds.
- IncompetechRoyalty-free music site. Each piece on this site is available under different licenses and uses creative commons by attribution 3.0
- MusopenRecordings, sheet music, and textbooks available to the public for free, without copyright restrictions.
- National Jukebox (Library of Congress)Historical sound recordings available to the public free of charge.
Open Use Video Collections
- Internet ArchiveDigital archive of Internet sites, audio recordings, moving images, and text.
- VidevoVidevo offers stock video footage and motion graphics for use in any project, commercial or non-commercial, through use of its own license or CC 3.0 license.
- Vimeo Creative CommonsA browse-able collection of Creative Commons licensed videos.
- YouTube Creative Commons searchBy appending “, creativecommons” (including the comma) to the end of your search term, you can filter for YouTube videos released with a creative commons license.