Digital Media Sites
Listed below are sites where you find media files (pics, sounds, video, etc.) that are “royalty free,” “not copyrighted,” or “labeled for commercial use.” This means you can use the stuff without worrying about plagiarism, BUT remember that you must still cite your sources!!!
Especially useful is the Finding Dulcinea Free-Use Media Guide, which I have copied and pasted below. To access any of the sites listed, you can copy and paste the following URL into the address bar on the internet:
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Finding Dulcinea’s Free Use Guide
Finding Free Content Online
Ideally all the free-use content in the world would be accessible and searchable from one massive granddaddy of a site. Believe it or not, that is what a few organizations are attempting to create. While we're not yet there-not by a long shot-these sites have taken the first steps toward that end. They'll help you search and browse your way through a growing body of free-use content.
Dulcinea's Insight
- Many Web sites, particularly broad ones such as these, have different criteria for searching free-use content. If you don't find what you want on one, try another.
- General free-use sites such as these are just that: general. Many other, more specialized sites exist. Check out the following sections if you have a more specific idea of what you're looking for.
- Free does not always mean free-use. Unless you're on a trusted Web site with a known license policy, always check the copyright of a specific work yourself. In the end you-and no one else-are responsible for what you use.
Dulcinea's Picks
Creative Commons' in-house search engine provides an easy way to search for CC-licensed work using some of the Web's more common search engines. Clicking on the various tabs allows you to switch between different types of content searches, such as an image search with the Flickr tab or a video search using the Blip.tv tab. Two easy buttons allow you to filter either for work you can use for commercial projects or for that which you can modify yourself.
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The Internet Archive 's collection of collections is a bit unwieldy, but the promise of substantial reserves lies behind the obscure interface. The organizing force behind much of the archiving and free-use movement, this site contains an enormous hodgepodge of archives and archiving tools. However, the legal status of the content is not always clear depending on which section of the site you're using. It can provide a good jumping-off point, but you might need to do a little detective work to learn the copyright status of many works here.
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TheFreeSite.com illustrates well the difference between free and free-use, housing a number of lists of sites offering free content. Regardless, much free-use content can be found here as well, particularly in the "free sound" and "free images" sections.
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Archives.gov is the online arm of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. A large portion of the public domain and other free-use content is made up of government material, much of which can be accessed here.
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Public Domain Photos and Other Free-Use Images
With the spread of digital cameras, everyone has become a photographer-and photographers love to share their work. The amount of quality photography online is truly inspiring. Add to that the fabulous textures, graphics, and other images that hordes of artists have made available, and the Internet has become the greatest resource for visual media one could imagine. Whether you're making a family newsletter, an original piece of graphic art, a presentation to your boss, or building your own professional Web site, these sites contain the images to turn it into a visual treat.
Dulcinea's Insight
- The most abundant content on the Web is images, and the sheer size of what's available can be daunting. Most image search engines offer advanced features to narrow the lot substantially.
- Image quality and resolution vary wildly. Just when you find that perfect image, you realize it's tiny or has awful resolution. Know what size and quality image you need before entering the fray, and focus your search accordingly.
- This may seem like common sense to most, but it must be said: even the most liberally licensed content usually prohibits you from using it for any defamation or libel, or in an offensive or hateful manner. Most archival sites also demand you not use their content to directly compete with them (such as on your own online photo-archive service).
Dulcinea's Picks
For image indexes and archives ...
MorgueFile's searchable archives focus on quality. The simple and serene design of this Web site is telling of the artistically talented people involved, and the thumbnail search results offer a wealth of information on the available photographs. After registering for a free account you can make use of the Light boxes tool, which lets you store your favorite images and even send your Light boxes to other users. All images in MorgueFile's archive are covered by a site-specific (SS) license that allows for almost completely unrestricted use.
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Image*Afterencompasses all the truly innovative ways the Internet lets you explore the visual world. A similar site to MorgueFile, it's the extras that elevate Image*After above the frenzy of free image and texture sites. The site's search results pages are supremely navigable, with magnified versions of the thumbnails appearing as you roll over them. If you delve further into the site, you'll be amazed by the power of its advanced searches. Don't care what your picture is of, but have an idea what it should feel like? Try out the abstract search function by specifying some general image criteria such as brightness, contrast, warmth, and organic-ness, and Image*After will try to find an image suited to the general feel of your project.
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OpenPhoto's growing site hosts the photographs of almost 10,000 users. Many of the photographs are of exceptional quality, and all are under one CC license or another. The site is solidly built and generally well designed, with roll-over photo information pop-ups for the thumbnails.
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PD Photo is a solid photo archive that is largely in the public domain. While not as extensive as Yotophoto's indexing, as sleek as MorgueFile design, or as innovative as Image*After's extras, the images kept on this site are generally very high quality, if a bit random in subject. All are taken by the creator of the site, so the style is pretty consistent throughout. Organization by geography makes this site rather useful if you're looking for pictures of a specific American locale.
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FreeRangeStock's less extensive but high-quality photo archive is worth a look. Although you won't find everything here, the quality and consistency of format of these free-use images makes a stop worthwhile.
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USA.gov lists all the government agency photo archives available online. Most government images are in the public domain, however some are not. The site makes no effort to help clear up the copyright issues in this regard, so check at the local site for each photograph before using any.
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For tools and services ...
Pixenate.com provides a handy online photo-editing tool that's built around simplicity and ease of use, as well as fun features like the oil-painting button that turns your photograph into a(nother) piece of art.
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PhotoRogueis based on the premise that perhaps the photo you need just doesn't exist yet. This infant site aims to fix that by taking requests for specific custom photographs, to be fulfilled by a growing legion of volunteer photographers in a number of countries and locales. You might not always get what you want, but if you just can't get to Mr. Pickle's Sandwich Shop for that all-important green profile, rest assured that you can find a photo of the place here.
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Finding Free Books and Public Domain Literature
Though visual and audio media certainly rule the Web these days in terms of sheer quantity, there's still plenty of literary and textual content to be had online. A veritable race is on to get the last few thousands years of written language input and uploaded, and the options for how to navigate this growing body of revived literature are many. All literature written before 1923, and much of it since, is in the public domain. Furthermore, much of the textual content online is available as free-use material. These sites will help you find that morsel of language or feast of philology you crave.
Dulcinea's Insight
- Photography is new, the written word is old. The online community is playing catch-up when it comes to literature, so patience is sometimes needed. If you can't find what you want, chances are it will be online soon.
- Many new organizations and sites dedicated to putting literature online are in their infancy, and the next few years promise quick growth in the list of useful sites.
- Often the copyright status of a book or eBook can be hard to decipher. The original text can be in the public domain, but a certain translation or edition may not be. Err on the side of caution when copying text, but if it's an original version of something before 1923 you can be confident it's in the public domain in the United States.
- The Internet Archive, featured in the "Where can I search all free-use content?" section of this guide, also has an impressive number of library catalogs within its text tab.
- Find online sources for book news, reviews, literary events and more on findingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Books.
Dulcinea's Picks
Project Gutenberg 's mission is to provide the public with as many free-use eBooks as possible, and they employ a substantial army of volunteers to do so. Their catalog contains over 20,000 free eBooks, most of which are in the public domain. Specific copyright information is given for each eBook.
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Google Book Search is Google's attempt to digitally store and make available the contents of the world's libraries and publishing houses. Using the "full view" search filter, you can search their cache of fully viewable books. Those in the public domain are available for free download, but as of now the only way to approximate such a filter is by adding the text "date:1500-1923" in the search query, which will return only those books published before 1923 (by default public domain material). Like most Google tools, this is a well-designed and well-functioning engine, and the ability to search by actual content (e.g., "a rose, by any other name") is as useful as it is innovative.
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PDBooksOnline offers an impressive collection of books, all in the public domain. You can read the books in HTML format on the site, or download them as text files. Don't let the distracting design of the site keep you away from this useful resource.
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Authoramamight not host the largest collection of public domain books, but the ease of use and clean design of the site is a welcome respite from the messier, headache-inducing interfaces of sites such as Project Gutenberg and PDBooks Online. All books here are presented in easy-to-read HTML format, and though modestly sized now the catalog is growing.
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Librivoxelaborates on the idea of Project Gutenberg by integrating all the different ways one might experience a book. This volunteer-built and growing database of public domain texts provides links to the e-text, Wikipedia page, and an audio-recording of the material. The site contains what is most likely the largest online catalog of audio books and is constantly adding new titles.
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Loudlitis another place to stop if you prefer to listen to your literature. With a much smaller title list than Librivox, Loudlit's virtues lie in the clever read-as-you-listen feature. Instead of downloading the audio book, you can choose to listen to it as streaming content while you read along on screen. This last feature, paired with a tiny children's books section, offers a nifty way to help kids learn to read.
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Public Domain Music and Free Audio Downloads
The Internet is a noisy place, with many audio offerings such as sound effects, midi clips and sheet music, entire albums or music samples, and blogs devoted to free sound. With almost half of Americans saying they downloaded music from the Web last year, copyright holders are struggling to keep up with the economic and legal ramifications of this expanding industry. These sites will help you grab all the goods you need while toeing the legal line.
Dulcinea's Insight
- The copyright status of music can be tricky. Although there is a great deal of sheet music in the public domain, specific recordings and adaptations of it might not be. With record companies on the offensive these days, a careful examination of the legal status of any piece of music is recommended to avoid any legal unpleasantness.
- Musicians are more particular about rights than most other artists online, and the specificity of the Creative Commons licenses they use is often greater. Read each license carefully.
- Check out some music blogs if you're dying for some tunes but aren't quite up to date on the latest music.
- There are many different file formats for audio these days. Although most will sound like what you expect, one format-known as MIDI-is actually a simplified, computer-produced sound file. It will give you the idea of a song, but don't expect orchestral quality, or vocals of any kind.
- FindingDulcinea’s Downloading Music Web Guide describes illegal music downloading, and provides resources for downloading legally. For information on all other things related to music, including researching your favorite bands and reading album reviews, visit the findingDulcinea Music Web Guide.
Dulcinea's Picks
For sheet music and MIDI ...
The Choral Public Domain Library (CPDL) wiki lists a rather large number of composers and titles in the public domain, providing information, links, MIDI and mp3 recordings, lyrics, and sheet music for most. Because this is a wiki the consistency of the entries is not perfect, but the sheer volume of the site makes it useful for anyone interested in classical music.
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Mutopiaexpands on the idea of the CPDL with an easy-to-use advanced search function. The site also uses LilyPad typesetting software on some of the titles which produces natural-looking transcriptions. The search results are displayed in bulky but informative tables that will let you know exactly what you're getting, such as file types available, copyright status, publication date, and more.
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Project Gutenberg 's Sheet Music page follows its traditional model: brute-force searching, a homely look, and no-frills download formats. Despite these drawbacks, Project Gutenberg is as trustworthy as it gets when it comes to legal copyrights.
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PDMusiccontains the lyrics and MIDI recordings for a substantial collection of early-American music. All the recordings are based on sheet music in the public domain.
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Cipoo.net provides the scores and MIDI recordings to a large body of choral music. Categories include individual composers, Christmas music, traditional folk songs, and more.
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Unheard Beethoven has taken all the obscure, unrecorded works of Beethoven and fashioned them into MIDI files so they might once again be heard. Though these file are copyrighted, the site has granted free use as long as you include proper attribution to their site.
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For sound effects ...
Partners in Rhyme not only has a large database of free-use sound effects and music, their audio tutorials and audio-related articles will help you understand what you're listening to and how to start producing your own work.
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A1 Free Sound Effects has a generic collection of sound effects that should suit any of your more basic sound needs-just don't be put off by the cheesy graphics and black background that give the site a less-than-professional look.
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Find Sounds ' search engine allows you to specify quite well what you'd want your sound file results to look like, including criteria such as sample rate and file size. Each result is displayed with an accompanying amplitude/frequency waveform picture to give a visual representation of the sound, and the "Sounds-Like Search" feature lets you find sounds based on a sample sound you provide. Using such a search engine, the copyright status of your results will need to be researched.