Copyright rulings often fall under one of two extremes: too controlling or too chaotic. In one extreme, works are given too many restrictions and too much control to be used or even cited as a resource. In the other extreme, works are given too much freedom and proper citing of use of the materials is not presented. 

 

Understanding copyright law has been a tremendous burden on the educational system to justify for teachers and students in using resources in research and in presentations. Another system for allowing public use of materials while giving proper citing has been developed to provide a better method for both the material creator and the person who wishes to post that material on their site. This is called Creative Commons licensing.  

 

The embedded video here is hosted on Revver. It can explain Creative Commons and how you can use these resources for your own websites.

 

 

More Creative Commons resources by category:

 

Friend and colleague Janice Friesen's copyright resources - http://jfriesen.net/copyright/copyrightforedmain.htm

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Image Resources:

Copryight-Free Photo Archives - 27,000 images from NASA, NOAA, and FWS

http://gimp-savvy.com/PHOTO-ARCHIVE/

DHD Multimedia Gallery (Selection of images, sounds, etc.)

http://gallery.hd.org/index.jsp

Free Foto

http://www.freefoto.com/

Free Images - 2500 stock photos (most free, some members only)

http://www.freeimages.co.uk/

Free Stock Photos

http://freestockphotos.com/

Imagesafter (Hi-res images, photos, & textures)

http://www.imageafter.com/

Pics4Learning - great for general topics

http://pics4learning.com/

Smithsonian Institution's Office of Imaging and Photographic Services

http://photo2.si.edu/

Coin Page

http://www.coinpage.com/

Free Public Domain Images - small collection

http://www.pdimages.com/web6.htm

Great Images in NASA

http://grin.hq.nasa.gov/

JSC Digital Image Collection (NASA) - seach or browse 9000 NASA images

http://images.jsc.nasa.gov/

NASA Multimedia Gallery (Images, video, and interactive features)

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/highlights/index.html

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Photo Gallery

http://photogallery.nrcs.usda.gov/

NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Photo Library - search 20,000 NOAA images

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/

Planetary Photojournal from NASA

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/

Public Health Image Library (PHIL) from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

http://phil.cdc.gov/Phil/default.asp

US Fish and Wildlife Service: Pictures/Graphics

http://pictures.fws.gov/

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Text Resources

Project Gutenberg (electronic texts)

http://gutenberg.net/

Stories and Characters That Have Had Their Copyright Expire

http://www.pdimages.com/stories.htm

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Music

Links to Search for PD Music and Lyrics

http://www.pdinfo.com/link.htm

Few Other Sources With Varying Restrictions The following sites contain some photographsand/or that may also require payment or permission for use. Read the copyright sections at each site to determine exact restrictions.

American Memory from the Library of Congress

http://rs6.loc.gov/amhome.html

Free Photographs

http://www.free-photographs.net/

iStockphoto (Read the Introduction section to learn more about their download credit system)

http://www.istockphoto.com/

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

http://www.metmuseum.org/home.asp

NASA Image eXchange (NIX)

http://nix.nasa.gov/

NetVet (Links-site to collections with varying restrictions of use)

http://netvet.wustl.edu/pix.htm

New York Public Library Picture Collection Online

http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco/

Collection of 30,000 digitized images from books, magazines and newspapers as well as original photographs, prints and postcards, mostly created before 1923.