Research Guides: Copyright: Copyright-Free Media

Digital Citizenship: Can I Use That Picture?

When using Creative Commons images and other media, it is extremely important to cite them correctly. Use these tools to help you...

Creative Commons: The Ultimate Guide Creative Commons Infographic. Created by Foter.com. CC BY-SA. This work is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ - See more at: http://libguides.eku.edu/aecontent.php?pid=485605&sid=3981786#sthash.0hmqrvc7.dpuf
Flickr Creative Commons Attribution Helper (Google Chrome Extension) The Flickr CC Attribution Helper generates text and HTML that you can use in webpages, presentations, and any other place that you use someone's Creative Commons works.

Websites that Allow Legal Access to Images, Music, & Sounds

Digital History The materials included in the Digital History website are original works of authorship, government records, works for which copyright permission has expired, works reprinted with permission, or works that are within the fair use protection of the copyright laws.
Flickr Commons The result of a collaboration between Flickr and the Library of Congress to host historical photographs that have "no known copyright restrictions" in order to make it easier to view historical photographs. Ideal for projects that revolve around history and culture.
Wikimedia Commons A database of over 23 million freely usable media files to which anyone can contribute
Free Foto Images are free but link back and attribution are required.
Pics4Learning Pics4Learning is a safe, free image library for education. Teachers and students can use the copyright-friendly photos and images for classrooms, multimedia projects, web sites, videos, portfolios, or any other project in an educational setting. The thousands of photos in this collection are approved for use in the classroom and indexed and sorted in order to maximize their effective use by students in a 21st century classroom. While the photographers retain the rights to these photos, they have graciously allowed their use through this collection.
Pixabay Pixabay is a repository for outstanding public domain images. You can freely use any image from this website in digital and printed format, for personal and commercial use, without attribution requirement to the original author.

Library of Congress American Memory Find materials from the Library of Congress and other institutions that chronicle historical events, people, places, and ideas that shape America. Includes free and open access to written and spoken words, sound recordings, still and moving images, prints, maps, and sheet music documenting the American experience. It is a digital record of American history and creativity.
National Galleries of Art Browse, share, and download digital images from the National Gallery of Art collections. NGA contains more than 43,000 open access digital images.Up to 3000 pixels each are available free of charge for download and use.

Creative Commons Search This site provides links to a host of sites and organizations that have agreed to some leniency of copyright protection.
Photos for Class Finding Creative Commons images through a CC Search is a good option for students. But getting students to attribute those photos correctly can add time to the work exponentially. Photos for Class removes that hassle. It automatically adds a black ribbon across the bottom of the image with the appropriate attribution. Plus, it provides a link to the original in Flickr, in case you want the image without the attribution on it so you can add it somewhere else. Here’s an example.
Public Domain Pictures
New York Public Library
British Library

Free Kids' Music This site has children's music available from artists who have agreed to share their work for free for children and educators
FindSounds A free site where you can search the web for sound effects and musical instrument samples.
Sound Bible Sound Bible offers free sound clips, sound bites, and sound effects.
Free Music Archive
American Rhetoric An online bank of historical speeches (text, audio, and video) that you can use in your digital story or book talk.
Beatpick Beatpick offers a great selection of licensed music and if you are using it in a non-commercial or non-profit production it’s free. Once you’ve chosen a song that you want to use, click on “License Song” and choose “Non Commercial projects.”

Public Domain 4U Historical music recordings available for educational purposes.
Musopen Browse music by composer, performer, instrument, period or form. Includes recordings, sheet music, and textbooks for free, without copyright restrictions.

Creative Commons Search This site provides links to a host of sites and organizations that have agreed to some leniency of copyright protection.

Wiki Media

Still can't find what you are looking for? These Wiki lists might include additional resources that apply to your topic.

Wikipedia: Public Domain Image Resources
Wikipedia: Free Sound Resources
Wikipedia: Free or Semi-Free Non Public Domain Info Resources