Finding Free Images To Use Legally

Published on May 17, 2014 By DrJBHL In Personal Computing

The ‘But it’s on the Internet, so it’s free’ questions always come up. The fact it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free, or that you can use it any way you please.

“There's a simple solution: search for images "licensed for reuse" -- images that you may legally use. Both Google and Bing may be set to show images with this license. The license exists thanks to Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001. The organization promotes legal sharing of created work, and the creators specify reuse terms and conditions.” - TechRepublic

There’s a good way to search out the ones which are free to use, free to use and modify…well, there are 6 licenses with increasing restrictions on usage… is with Google Apps and CreativeCommons.

On CreativeCommons, the least restrictive is “Free to use with attribution”, the most requires attribution and prohibit both the creation of derivative works and commercial use, and you can learn about them here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

There’s a really good article about it here: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/four-ways-to-find-free-images-to-use-legally-with-google-apps/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

This is just to help you in your search for usable images. If you upload images and artwork to CreativeCommons, you’ll even run into their licensing tool to help you create the proper licenses for your work.

WC enforces the policy that IP (intellectual property) is sacrosanct…if you’re in doubt about an image, just ask Jafo or the other Gallery Mods. If you use an image not of your own making, you have to have the license included in the zip along with the image/s, unless it’s fan art. Nothing new about that.

I hope the Gallery Moderators will chime in. I’m only bringing you awareness of a tool available to you in your searches, and simplifying (hell, over simplifying) the rules of the game.

I’ve also tried to centralize some tips and rules governing uploads/moderation, etc. here:

Sources:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/four-ways-to-find-free-images-to-use-legally-with-google-apps/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

https://forums.wincustomize.com/326043/page/1/

https://www.wincustomize.com/upload-guidelines

https://forums.wincustomize.com/319604/page/1/#3010562

Comments (Page 1)

RedneckDude

on May 17, 2014

Good post!

neone6

on May 17, 2014

RedneckDude

reply 1

Good post!

Yeah, it's a Steal !

Jafo

on May 17, 2014

One of the BIGGEST issues Moderators have is with mis-interpretation of a source site's T.O.U.

'Free for personal use' does not always allow redistribution - but sometimes it does....when you read further.

Also....BIG POINT...

If the 'source' site has a comment along the lines of 'all these images are free....la...la...la...but if one of these is yours and you wish it removed please contact us.....etc...' then you CANNOT use ANYTHING from that site.

NOTHING.

Reason....they only THINK they are free to use....but clearly did NOT source them from their legitimate owners and thus cannot guarantee their authority to release.

Uvah

on May 18, 2014

I often grab images from the net through Google. Each time I make note of the author. This way I can give credit in a screenshot and a link to the image page. Most are free to use but I have found some that come with strings attached. One will say free for personal and/or commercial use and ask for a link to the site should you decide to use it. The only ones that don't have strings are the ones that say 'copyright has been' waived or something to that affect. I play safe and assume all have strings.

Rusty23

on Nov 24, 2014

Very useful websites, thank you so much! I only knew of one from the list (Creative Commons) and used whatever relevant images I could find there. By the way, isn't it like if you give any image proper credits (along with a link), it becomes free to use, since you have openly credited the person (say, photographer) in question?

DrJBHL

on Nov 24, 2014

Rusty23

reply 5

By the way, isn't it like if you give any image proper credits (along with a link), it becomes free to use, since you have openly credited the person (say, photographer) in question?

Good question, Rusty23.

It's one thing to credit the original artist, quite another to use his work in any way. Merely crediting the original artist doesn't give you permission to alter/modify/use and/or distribute the image. That's what licensing is all about.

In order to use/modify, etc. the original artist's image, you must have permission to do so for personal/home use, or commercial use, or both. You also have to have permission to distribute the modified image.

Jafo

on Nov 24, 2014

Rusty23

reply 5

By the way, isn't it like if you give any image proper credits (along with a link), it becomes free to use, since you have openly credited the person (say, photographer) in question?

No, crediting the original author is what you do AFTER FIRST obtaining consent to use his/her work....

RickJP

on Mar 30, 2015

mine are now on JoeUser and are total free to use any way anyone wants to.

Stanley Tarrant

on Mar 31, 2015

I will eat a pile of doo doo if ONE person, ONE person reports after a gaming session that a company, police, etc. is suing them for copy right infringement for using an image that was obtainable off of a legit website (i.e. not off a pirate website, and you can just right click and save to desktop) in galciv3.

Come on, ONE person. If companies and law enforcement are going after this, then they must have excellent supply of money to burn.

Its like car alarms. I am waiting for one time in my life, just one time, where if a car alarm is going off, someone was genuinally trying to steal a car. Everytime I have heard a car alarm, it was caused intentionally or unintentionally by some idiot driver who accidently or intentionally activated it. Car alarms are the ultimate boy who cried wolf situation. Car alarms are about as useful as movie credits. If you aren't the actor or director, no one knows who you are, yet we have wasted millions of hours of labor and material costs just to add a few minutes of useless credits onto each movie ever created.

Jafo

on Mar 31, 2015

Stanley Tarrant

reply 9

Car alarms are about as useful as movie credits. If you aren't the actor or director, no one knows who you are, yet we have wasted millions of hours of labor and material costs just to add a few minutes of useless credits onto each movie ever created.

See....that's where your interpretation of reality doesn't correlate with the world's view.

Movie credits are the same as a signature on a painting. It is the actual list of people who are harmed by film piracy.

You can be an uncaring slob and walk out during the credits or even before them....better still, if you cannot appreciate the people who create the film....simply don't go.

What actually totally SHITS ME is the ignorant arseholes of TV network penny pinchers who overdub the film credits with advertising for the next pathetic instalment of some shitty reality TV show - made for peanuts and aimed at the lowest common intellectual denominator.

But I agree...car alarms are less than useless. Get an engine immobilizer. [or 2 pounds of C4 and a trembler switch]...

Stanley Tarrant

on Mar 31, 2015

Oh, and not saying its right or anything. I am just saying enforcing image copyright in galciv 3 would be about as challenging as enforcing only missionary position sex in the military. Technically, per the uniform code of military justice, other forms of sex are a violation and considered sodomy, but you dont have military enforcers in every bed room confirming the position.

Stanley Tarrant

on Mar 31, 2015

Jafo

reply 10

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,

reply 9

See....that's where your interpretation of reality doesn't correlate with the world's view.

I know, but all places of employment in america dont keep an up to date "credits" file of every person that ever worked there in one document. sure, its in databases, but think about it... When a car is made, are you given a document that credits every little person who halped make your car when you purchse a car? You buy a big mack at McDonald's does the manager scramble to give you a quick list of the server and cook who prepared your burger? I know a moive is a big production, but other big productions dont warrant a direct acknowledgement of credits.

Jafo

on Mar 31, 2015

A hamburger isn't 'a big production'....what results in the dunny after eating such plastic crap would classify as such, however...

Cars of the 'class' of Aston Martins have their engine builder credited via a plaque in the engine bay...so that analogy doesn't fit totally, either...

Stanley Tarrant

on Mar 31, 2015

Jafo

reply 10

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,

reply 9

You can be an uncaring slob and walk out during the credits or even before them....better still, if you cannot appreciate the people who create the film....simply don't go.

I am curious how much hours of labor go into producing movie credite. How many hours of labor go into checking and rechecking the spelling in movie credits. How many manager hours spent approving the final list.

Take a popular movie, say Braveheart. Find a random creidt. Say the secondary props producer or something completely random who is not an actor or the movie director. Ask a million people who the secondary props producer was. I will absolutely amazed if 1 person says , "oh yeah!!! I know who did that!

Now, the real question. If credits weren't produced... How much would it raise everyone's salary if all those hours of labor werent put into the credits?

Jafo

on Mar 31, 2015

Oh, and most of just about every car you'll find native to the US would only end up with 'build credits' like R2D2 and C3PO, et al. Humans don't get a look in. That's why Motown is bankrupt...

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