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Visual media is a big help when creating professional materials, such as presentations or blog posts. A large percentage of the visual media available online is copyright protected, however, whereas works in the public domain are not. This article helps you identify what public domain media is and how to recognize it.

What Is Public Domain?

If a work is part of the public domain, it means that it is available to anyone for any purpose. A public domain image may therefore be used as the user sees fit. This includes not only reproductions but also adaptations, modifications and distributions of the original image. Although there is no formal requirement to do so, it is still considered good manners to indicate the original source. This is especially true if the basis for a creative alteration is a well and widely known work of art.

In contrast, any non-public domain work usually has copyright protection and requires a license to use. Copyright encompasses several rights, which allow the copyright holder to reproduce the work, distribute copies and display the work. The copyright begins at the time of creation and requires no separate registration.

It is important to observe the copyright unless one wishes to risk copyright infringement, which means possibly facing expensive legal ramifications by the copyright holder or creator.

When Are Works and Images Considered Public Domain?

First of all, there exists no globally binding or valid international copyright law. Individual countries have different ways of addressing the issue of a copyright-protected work. Most countries subscribe to the ideas of the Berne convention, which protects artistic works. All signatory nations agree to honor foreign copyright regulations as though they were their own.

Furthermore, the universally understood copyright duration extends from the creation of the specific work throughout the creator’s remaining lifetime plus an additional fifty years after their death. This number is a bare minimum and individual countries extended this period.

Similar to the concept of copyright, the idea of a work being part of the public domain also varies depending on local legislation. The US and their respective international counterparts understand the terms ‘copyright’ and ‘public domain’ differently. However, a basic agreement exists – a work is considered public domain if one of the following applies:

• The work is not eligible for copyright. This includes, for instance, anything that does not rely on an act of human creativity, pure facts or (by their own definition) any work created by a US government authority.
• The copyright of the respective work has expired. For the US, this includes anything published anywhere around the world before January 1st, 1923.
• The initial creator transferred the work into the public domain. This goes for any image licensed under the Creative Commons CC designation.

Telltale Signs for Protected Images

A visual medium is either a public domain image or it isn’t, there are no options in between. To know when it is safe to use an image, one can rely on several indicators. For instance, if you yourself are the creator it’s obviously safe. Also, images may already whether it’s public domain or free to use, such as a Creative Commons designation. For all others, they require some research.

There are several distinct ways to indicate an existing copyright, informing users that the image in question is not public domain. The most obvious method is image watermarking, which is employed to deter any unauthorized use of the image. The same goes for the second indicator, a clearly discernible copyright symbol in the image. Also, there might be information about the ownership or the original source displayed or appended to the image. Additionally, an official copyright register might list the image. Finally, if you want to be on the safe side, use the reverse image search of Google.

If you create the pictures, images or visual content from scratch, you’re automatically the copyright holder. The same goes for any photographs you take – they are yours to do with as you please. You could register the copyright to your work just to be sure. Furthermore, you could include this information in the metadata.

Imagery and visuals help you make a more compelling argument, draw attention to or illustrate standpoints in your creative works. While copyrighted works should adhere to their respective licenses, images from the public domain don’t need explicit permission. However, research helps teams make clear determinations whether images are free to use. Use a digital asset management to simplify research and protect assets.

Today, there are several great Internet websites that offer thousands of free public domain and royalty free images. Below is a list of some of the best available sites to find these pictures.

All these sites have free images with different agreements. Make sure the images you're copying have no restrictions or have license agreements that allow you to use them how you choose.

This page tells users where they can find pictures to download. To learn how to copy them, see: How to copy text and images from a web page.

Free Images

Free Public Domain Images Website

FREEIMAGES - Free Images is one of the best sites to locate free stock photos. The site is one of the best sites to locate free stock photos and contains thousands of free images that can be used by virtually anyone. While many of the pictures are free, some of the images do require written permission first.

Google Images with usage rights

Google Images - Searching on Google Images search is a great way to find lots of interesting pictures, but it used to be very time consuming to find pictures you could legally use on your site. Thankfully, Google now has an option to search images by usage rights. In the image below, under the Search tools (1.) and then Usage Rights (2.), you can filter your search based on how it's going to be used.

Wikimedia Commons

Wikimedia Commons - Fantastic media repository that is part of the Wikipedia umbrella project, where users are free to use any of the site's photos, audio, videos, and other media freely.

Flickr: The Commons

Flickr: The Commons - Flickr: The Commons is a section of Flickr containing pictures with no copyrights from The Library Of Congress, museums, Smithsonian Institution, and Flickr users.

Flickr British Library - A fantastic collection of scans from the British Library of over 11,000,000 public domain pictures.

MorgueFile

MorgueFile - Another fantastic site to locate high-resolution digital stock photography. The site offers thousands of free images, almost all which have no restrictions or agreements attached. Also, the site does not require a login to download the high-quality files.

StockSnap.io

StockSnap.io - A great collection of thousands of high-resolution images that are free from Copyright restrictions.

Unsplash

Unsplash - Fantastic site with over 550,000 high-resolution photos that can be used by anyone from a community of generous photographers.

Picjumbo

Picjumbo - A great collection of totally free photos for commercial and personal use in a wide variety of categories.

StockVault

StockVault - Another great site that contains thousands of free stock photography in a large variety of categories.

Picdrome

Picdrome - A great site that lists several hundred photos in about a dozen different albums.

PD Photo

PD Photo - Another great collection of thousands of free public domain pictures. This site contains one of the best collections of travel pictures from around the world.

Pixabay

Pixabay - Simple, easy to use site with nearly 65,000 photos and illustrations. All the pictures may be used freely for any purpose, without attribution.

Pexels

Pexels - Great site of photos and videos that are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero license.

Burst

Burst - A great selection of free high-resolution pictures for websites and commercial use from Shopify.

Liam's pictures from old books

Best Free Public Domain Images

From Old Books - A good collection of original pictures from old books that are no longer copyrighted and considered public domain. Liam's pictures from old books is a great place to find obscure and unique pictures and illustration.

WorldImages

WorldImages - California State University site that contains over 60,000 images from around the world that can be used freely for non-profit and educational use.

GoodFreePhotos

GoodFreePhotos - Site run by Yinan Chen that specializes in photos of state parks, national parks, national landmarks, and historical sites.

DeviantArt

DeviantArt - Another fantastic site with not only photographs, but traditional art, digital art, stock images, and more. Keep in mind that this site contains both royalty free and copyrighted works. Make sure you view the artists' or photographers' usage guidelines and rules before using any image.

Other

The above list is only a few of our favorite sites that we have found to be useful for locating free public domain images. If the above links do not have the images you're looking for, there are hundreds of other available services online.

Free Pictures Public Domain