George C. Gordon Library

Public Domain: Images, Audio, Video

Determining copyright status is not always easy. Contact a librarian with any questions you have about copyright and also check the Copyright Complaince at WPI. See also the Copyright Quick Guide, Columbia University Libraries


Contents:

Public Domain

Where is the public domain?

According to the U. S. Copyright Office, the public domain is not a place. A work of authorship is in the public domain if it is no longer under copyright protection or if it failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former copyright owner. Many U.S. federal government documents are not entitled to copyright protection under U.S. law, sometimes referred to as "noncopyright." Therefore, images within many government publications and web sites are free to use.

For more information on public domain, see the book Public Domain : How to Find and Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art and More (3rd Edition)

Creative Commons's Public Domain Dedication states that the "Dedicator recognizes that, once placed in the public domain, the Work may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, used, modified, built upon, or otherwise exploited by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial, and in any way, including by methods that have not yet been invented or conceived."


by jasminelee at flickr

When Does an Copyrighted Item Become Public Domain in the United States?

To sum up:

Some of the selected web sites below contain public domain as well as copyrighted resources, be sure to check. Some web sites use agreements, such as Creative Commons, which change or limit the rights held by the copyright owner. Anything identified as royalty-free may be freely used.

Digital Collections in Public Domain

Be aware: An item being "out of print" is not the same as an item's copyright having expired. The U. S. Copyright Office maintains a database of Copyright records that can be searched at copyright.gov. See How to Investigate the Status of a Work to understand the process.

Creative Commons

Some web sites are allowing their users to choose a Creative Commons license. This nonprofit organization offers a number of licenses which users can designate their own terms ranging form 'Some Rights Reserved' to public domain. Creative Commons-licensed materials are not all public domain, you will have to look closely to be sure. See Creative Commons Licenses for more information. Search.creativecommons.org is a great place to find items.

CC attributions vary, you must read the summary of the license to understand how to use the image, texts, videos, music etc. For instance, Tufts University Open Courseware uses the Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States which means if you use you must reference Tufts as the author as well as share what you create from their work in a similar way. This is not public domain but allows users to access content, adapt and share it as well.


by kpauli on Flickr

Find Images

Federal photo archives such as the Public Health Image Library and NASA Image Exchange can be useful. FEMA even has an archive if you are looking for wildfires, recovery and other emergency-related activities.

Find Music and Sounds

Always check licenses for each clip, some sites do not contain all royalty-free or public domain items.

Find Video

You may need an online video converter for some sites, see Vixy: Online Converter to Download online videos or YouConvertIt.

Search Engines & Photo Sharing Sites

Fair use does allow some educational uses of images. See Fair Use Guidelines.

Image Search Engines: Imagery | Google Image | FaganFinder: Image Search | Yahoo! Image Search

Photo Sharing Sites: such as flickr creative commons search (now 90 second films are available as well, search Advanced, Choose Videos only) | EveryStockPhoto (metasite for images sites)

Microsoft Clip Art & Media

Working with Images

Working with Videos

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Last modified: Jul 29, 2009, 14:42 EDT
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