LibGuides: Images, Music, & Copyright: Finding Images (Internet)

Sites with CC-licensed, or smilarly licensed, images

Europeana
Europeana is a single access point for millions of books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival records throughout Europe - and this includes lots of images! Click the "More" button below for more info on how to use this resource.
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Enter a search term in the search box and then modify your search results in the lefthand column of your initial search results. To specify the type of reuse permission you are looking for click 'By Copyright' and select accordingly. Then click on a preview image in the search results to see more information about it. Clicking on the icons below the preview image on the left of the 'image information page' will open a new window with a full description of the reuse terms or, in the case of a Creative Commons license, a link to the license itself. Note: this site has twelve different licenses, not all of which permit reuse - you need to check the details.
Flickr Advanced Search
Flickr Advanced Search enables you to search for photographs, videos, screenshots, screencasts, illustrations, art, animation, and CGI objects. In addition to being able to use Search Terms in several ways you can search by content type, media type, and date. Then, at the bottom of the search form, you can limit your search to imagery and other content licensed through Creative Commons.
Flickr Commons
Flickr Commons contains collections of images made available by museums and other organizations worldwide, including many images created by U.S. Government employees. These organizations have determined that "no known copyright restrictions" exist, which is not the same legal status as a license for unlimited reuse.
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Each of the organizations that have contributed images to 'The Commons' has a rights statement that explains their understanding of "no known copyright restrictions" - read it before using an image and credit the source [https://www.flickr.com/commons/institutions/]. Images provided by the United States Federal Government are free of copyright and available for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations, and Web pages.
Book Images from the Internet Archive
The photos and drawings are from more than 600 million library book pages scanned by the Internet Archive. The pictures range from 1500 to 1923 (many, but not all, post-1923 books and images are currently under copyright), and most or all of these images have no known copyright restrictions.
Google Advanced Image Search
Select your preferred usage rights at the bottom of the search form.
The Met Collection from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts an increasingly vast archive of (mostly) hi-resolution digital images online. Images of works of art that the Museum believes to be in the public domain are identified as Open Access for Scholarly Content (OASC) and may be downloaded for limited non-commercial, educational, and personal use, or for fair use as defined in the United States copyright laws.
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Authorized non-commercial uses for MoMA images include scholarly publications in any media. You must cite the author and source of such images, and the citations should include the URL "www.metmuseum.org," but not in any way that implies endorsement of the use of the images.
MorgueFile
MorgueFile contains over 400k free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits.
Openclipart
Openclipart contains more than 160k Clipart images that are released into the Public Domain.
Pickup Image
Pickup Image offers a variety of images, many with Creative Commons Licenses attached. All photos have been reviewed by Pickup Image staff in order to assure “a high level of quality stock photos”.
Pixabay
Pixabay has over 4.2 million free images for use anywhere with a CC0 license.
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You can provide credit for use of images in the following format: "by [Contributor] via Pixabay".
Unsplash
"Unsplash grants you an irrevocable, nonexclusive, worldwide copyright license to download, copy, modify, distribute, perform, and use photos from Unsplash for free, including for commercial purposes."
PublicDomainPictures.net
PublicDomainPictures.net is a repository of free public domain images that also links to commercial sites. Their public domain images have a Creative Commons License attesting to their public domain status.
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[Note: if you redistribute an image online a hyperlink to the page you found it on is mandatory. Also, If you reuse an image commercially be aware that some photos may require a model or property release, and pictures featuring commercial products should be used with care.]
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is a database of 1 million+ freely reusable media files to which anyone can contribute.
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Clicking on an image or media file will take you to the information page for that file. Among the often extensive information (you may need to scroll down) supplied by the uploader is the copyright status, the copyright owner, and the license conditions. Except for materials believed to be in the public domain, a link to the full text of the license(s) is included on the file description page.
Yahoo Image Search
To search for images with Creative Commons licenses, perform your initial search and then click "Usage Rights" to select the best option for your use.
Youtube
Youtube has some videos that have a Creative Commons license! To search for Creative Commons Licensed video first use the search box at the top of the page, then click the Filter dropdown-button that will appear just above the search results, select 'Creative Commons' and any additional limiters that seem appropriate.