How to find free pictures for your blog, using Creative-Commons search

<b>This article describes the Creative Commons search tool, which you can use to look for pictures, videos, music etc that are available for other people to use under a Creative Commons license.</b><br /><br /><div style="clear: both;"></div><br /><a name="more"></a><h2>What is Creative Commons</h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQtsZ6rxyL9DpxYOxc1RYeqR8vCaLUqQw4s60jb5fSKtA5CWeDBuRb8ohK2Nna0IW8q165Xtht7BLL1K_cW2BurlapQgetHqxmNfeHRUaLDuEOkt4zyZBbPkUwktqIUJfsmLRuw-9K_Vr/s356/find-free-pictures-for-your-blog-with-creative-commons-search-tool.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Stick-man holding up a Creative-Commons-search logo, while thinking about some images he wants to find" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfQtsZ6rxyL9DpxYOxc1RYeqR8vCaLUqQw4s60jb5fSKtA5CWeDBuRb8ohK2Nna0IW8q165Xtht7BLL1K_cW2BurlapQgetHqxmNfeHRUaLDuEOkt4zyZBbPkUwktqIUJfsmLRuw-9K_Vr/s320/find-free-pictures-for-your-blog-with-creative-commons-search-tool.png" title="Blogger-HAT-Man recommends Creative Commons search to find interesting pictures to use on your blog" width="250" /></a></div>Previously I've described <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/copyright-blogs-and-bloggers.html">how copyright applies to bloggers</a>, <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/tools-for-applying-copyright-protection.html">how you can protect your blog-content from copyright theives</a>, and <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-action-when-someone-has-copied.html">what you can do if they take you work anyway</a>.<br /><br />The focus in that series was looking after your own rights.<br /><br />But rights always come with responsibilities. The details vary by country, but in general you cannot just copy other people's recent work without their permission - in the same way that they cannot copy yours.<br /><br />Some people, though, are <b>happy to give other people permission to use their work</b>, often with certain conditions (eg you must including an attribution link to the creator).<br /><br /><b>Creative Commons</b> is an easy, legal way for creators to give permission for things they create to be used by other people. It is a framework which offers "licenses" that creators (writers, artists, composers, poets, etc) can apply to their work to say that other people can make copies, and what conditions apply  (eg non-commercial use, only if you attribute me, etc)<br /><br />To use it, authors, artists, etc don't need to register their work. Instead, they go to <a href="http://creativecommons.org/" target="_blank">the Creative Commons website</a> and get code / text to put with their published work to show what rules apply.<br /><br />Then they can publish or upload their pictures, writing etc anywhere they want, and by linking to the licence <b>the work is as protected as anything on the internet can be</b>.<br /><br /><br /><h2>How to find pictures & music that are Creative Commons licensed</h2>Creative Commons have a very useful search tool, found at <a href="http://search.creativecommons.org/" target="_blank">http://search.creativecommons.org</a><br /><br />This is not a search <b>engine</b>. Instead it is a <b>front-end-tool</b> that lets you choose:<br /><ul><li>The <b>keywords</b> you want to search for (the search words)</li><li>The <b>type of license</b> that you need (use for commercial purposes - yes or no, modify, adapt, build upon - yes/no)</li><li>Which of the file host/search services to use (eg flickr, Google, Open clip art library - etc)</li></ul><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRIz1Bfgf4QL98winooALXIyYJ50myVZzZ1yt-yRrVkTNjsuw2tW_4_cUHKsSvDZ3IWZjeGQRIMYpx-GkIctxoKt64wYuDcXa1x8cy6FwJYa3fS5jDZLudG23zL191Ev4c0Fjp0Ue1gE-/s640/creative-commons-search-main-options-menu-specify-keywords-modifiable-attribution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="screen where you can enter creative commons search parameter values " border="0" height="450" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIRIz1Bfgf4QL98winooALXIyYJ50myVZzZ1yt-yRrVkTNjsuw2tW_4_cUHKsSvDZ3IWZjeGQRIMYpx-GkIctxoKt64wYuDcXa1x8cy6FwJYa3fS5jDZLudG23zL191Ev4c0Fjp0Ue1gE-/s640/creative-commons-search-main-options-menu-specify-keywords-modifiable-attribution.png" title="Creative Commons search tool home page" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />Once you have entered the search options, click on the source that you want to look in, and <b>you are  taken to that site</b> and shown the results of the search-query and options you entered.<br /><br />For example, when I entered:<br /><ul><li>"Christmas"</li><li>Commercial allowed (because I wanted to make <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/inserting-picture-into-blog-post.html">a picture to use</a> in <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/">Blogger-HAT</a>, where I have advertising)</li><li>Changes allowed (because I wanted an image that I could use as the basis for another one, rather than exactly as it is now)</li></ul><br />and clicked on Fotopedia, I was shown:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Pxni-EFr_dvzwTSWCgkx_Ewat4CbB3YXTb6o6eR_vsuXyQdUL5V4popuQopSvt9fnblWBT3kCnexcuSuvkGN__b53NcEcnXfCs2DBkSKXWFwoSTbjh2AKRDwk5SlrCTbU4HowppbDwTu/s545/fotopedia-search-results-set-commercial-labelled-reuse-attribution.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="screen showing three Christmas-themes photos from Fotopedia, and their tools for changing pictures per screen and re-use options" border="0" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_Pxni-EFr_dvzwTSWCgkx_Ewat4CbB3YXTb6o6eR_vsuXyQdUL5V4popuQopSvt9fnblWBT3kCnexcuSuvkGN__b53NcEcnXfCs2DBkSKXWFwoSTbjh2AKRDwk5SlrCTbU4HowppbDwTu/s640/fotopedia-search-results-set-commercial-labelled-reuse-attribution.png" title="Fotopedia search results set for Christmas with commercial use and modifications allowed" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br />From here I could use the search tools in Fotopedia to refine my image-search and find just the right picture that I could use to represent a Christmas carol worksheet on my blog.<br /><br /><br /><h2>What sources are included</h2>Today, the sources that are linked to from Creative Commons search are:<br /><ul><li>Eurpoeana - media</li><li>Flickr - pictures</li><li>Fotopedia - pictures</li><li>Google web - web search results</li><li>Google images - pictures</li><li>Jamenda - music</li><li>Open Clip Art Library - images</li><li>SpinXpress - media</li><li>Wikimedia Commons - media</li><li>YouTube - video</li><li>Pixabay - images</li><li>ccMixter - music</li><li>SoundCloud - music</li></ul><br /><br />It wouldn't surprise me if this list grow/shrinks, as sites become more or less useful as sources of public-domain or creative-commons-licensed materials.<br /><br /><br /><h2>Things to watch out for</h2>Creative Commons cannot guarantee that the results of searches that start in their tools will always be available for re-use: source systems may change their approach, items may be mis-tagged, content owners may change their mind, etc. So they recommend that you should a<b>lways click-through to the original image in the source site, and double-check the license and attribution requirements</b> there.<br /><br />Also, some sites may allow you to link directly to the copy of the image on their site. this can be a lot quicker than making your own copy, uploading it and included it in your blog.  But doing this means that the image will not be used as <a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/07/postsnippet-and-postthumbnail-tools-for.html">the thumbnail-image for your post</a>. And if the picture is ever removed from the original site - or its web-site address there changes - then the link in your blog will not work any more.<br /><br /><br /><br /><hr /><h2>Related Articles:</h2><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/copyright-blogs-and-bloggers.html">Bloggers and Copyright - an overview</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/tools-for-applying-copyright-protection.html">Protecting your blog-contents from copyright theft</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/10/taking-action-when-someone-has-copied.html">Taking action when someone has used your copyright materials</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2011/07/postsnippet-and-postthumbnail-tools-for.html">Thumbnail images - a picture to summarise each post</a><br /><br /><a href="http://blogger-hints-and-tips.blogspot.com/2010/01/inserting-picture-into-blog-post.html">Adding a picture to Blogger</a>

How to find free pictures for your blog, using Creative-Commons search

This article describes the Creative Commons search tool, which you can use to look for pictures, videos, music etc that are available for ot...

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