Finding Copyright-Friendly Images

Credit: Nathan Russell

No doubt, you've gone looking for images on the web before. Ordinarly, you probably used a simple Google Image Search to look for a word or phrase and found something close to what you need. That works, but there are a couple of problems with using it as a general way to find images for your projects: The ownership of the images is unknown. You can't really be sure that you have permission to use them on a web site or in a presentation. Just because it's on the web doesn't mean that it's OK for you to reuse for your own creations. The keywords used to find the images are most closely related to the text on the page. You'll find a lot of images that are unrelated to what you need a picture of. As a teacher, you need to model the right things for those you teach. Paying attention to the ownership of images and other digital objects is essential to honor those who created them.

This page will introduce you to resources that enable you to quickly find images that fit your needs and that you can use without legal or ethical concerns.

Google Images

Recently Google has started to identify images that have explicitly stated permissions for re-use. Some can be used by anyone for any purpose, some can be used and modified, and some can be used for commercial purposes. Here's how to find them.

First, go to the Google Images Search (http://images.google.com/) page as usual. Instead of typing in your search terms, though, go to the Advanced Search link.

Then look for Usage Rights near the bottom of the Advanced Search.

Then type in the search terms for what you're after.

Many More Sources

If you can't find what you need on Google, here are the next four sites to try:

• Flickr Creative Commons Search
• Pics4Learning
• Morgue File
• and... just for fun, a way to search for Multicolr Flickr Creative Commons images by color (but not by content)

And for even more search possibilities, check out the WebQuest.org Free Media page or this even longer list.

Practice

1. Using Google Advance Image Search, Flickr Creative Commons Search, Pics4Learning and Morgue File, find copyright-friendly images of beaches. Use "beach" not "beaches" as the search term.
2. Then, using the Multicolr site, find an image of a clock that includes the colors green and dark blue.

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