Finding Free Stuff

Everyone likes a bargain... especially when it comes to media on the web

Contents

Do We Have To Ask Why?

You are looking for say a specific image... or music track... or video clip... to use on your web site... Powerpoint project... home digital movie. Where do you go to get free media without being sued by a record company or copyright holder?

There is the hard way- going through the hurdles of properly requesting permission or even paying for us. And there is the easy way- go to media source sites where the re-use is clearly stated.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons is a movement to simply the ways media creators can license and share thier works and at the same time, make it much easier to understand for people who wish to re-use media:

Creative Commons offers a series of human readable licenses with logos and links to the terms of the license, so you can tell just by looking at a web site if the content there is open to re-use. If you see the Creative Commons logo, then you know exactly how you can reuse the content (and you do not have to spend the time asking permission as permission is granted by the license).

The Sources of Free Stuff

A collection of suggested places to look for free media. Explore some of these, and find some media that might interest you. Add to your wiki notes (see HowTo for instructions) some notes on what you found,a nd how you might want to use the media.

• Common Content "is a catalog of works licensed in the Creative Commons], available to anyone for copying or creative re-use.
• Free Media royalty free resources for education from Univesity of North Texas
• Center for Cooperative Research "seeks to encourage grassroots participation and collaboration in the documentation of the public historical record using an open-content model"
• DMusic
• Freesound
• OpSound "Opsound is a record label and sound pool using an open source, copyleft model, an experiment in practical gift economics, a laboratory for new ways of releasing music."
• Public Domain Music
• Oyez Oyez Oyez "The Oyez Project, working in conjunction with the Creative Commons organization is releasing the first of several sets of Supreme Court oral audio in MP3 format. This audio is licensed under the Creative Commons. This license allows listeners to download, share, and create derivative works using these audio files."
• Comfort Stand Records - a community-driven label where all releases are free with artwork and liner notes. Anything goes except commercial sale.
• Flickr Creative Commmons Pool
• OpenPhoto
• CoolText "is an online graphics generator for web pages and anywhere else you might need an impressive logo without a lot of work."
• Pixel Perfect Digital "a growing collection of free high resolution photos and illustrations. They're free to use in both your personal and professional design projects."
• World Art Kiosk "The World Art image database allows you to search over 35,000 images from throughout the world."
• Digital Library for Earth System Education (DLESE)
• Bristol Biomedical Image Archive
• Internet Pathology Lab for Education Florida State University College of Medicine
• JSC Digital Image Collection "more than 9000 NASA press release photos spans the American manned space program"
• Earth from Space
• NASA Image eXchange (NIX)
• GReat Images in NASA (GRiN)
• Prelinger Archives "Rick Prelinger and The Internet Archive hereby offer these public domain films from Prelinger Archives to all for free downloading and reuse."
• Eldritch Press free, accessible books.