A copyright owner may grant rights to the public to use a protected work. That grant could be a simple statement on the work explaining the allowed uses, or it may be a selection of a Creative Commons license.
Need an image for a paper, project, or presentation? Here are some good places to search for images which are in the public domain or licensed for public use:
- Creative Commons Image Search offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations such as Flickr and Google Images.
- Flickr Commons gathers images with "no known copyright restrictions" from institutions around the world.
- Wikimedia Commons is a database of more than 20 million freely usable media files.
- Library of Congress Prints & Photographs includes collections of snapshots, posters, and art illustrations. Be sure to click on "Rights and Restrictions" to determine the status of the particular item you're interested in.
- NASA provides historical photos as well as astronomy-related images.
- Rijksmuseum Studio includes 150,000 digital images of artwork from the Netherlands museum, including works by Rembrandt and Vermeer.
Remember, even when the copyright holder has given permission for his or her work to be used, you should always provide proper attribution.
