In some courses you may be asked to add images to an assignment, or create an image collage for an assignment. Since almost everything on the Internet is the intellectual property of someone, even if it isn't explicitly stated, here are instructions to help you comply with copyright law while searching for and using images created by others.
Look for photos or other images that are licensed
under a Creative Commons 0 (Zero) license or specifically say that reuse and
modification are allowed either with or without attribution.
The CC0 license is described on the Creative Commons website as:
The person who associated a work with this deed has
dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to
the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights,
to the extent allowed by law. You can
copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes,
all without asking permission.
You don’t
have to credit the creator, but it’s polite to do so.
Either
credit each photo or provide a list at the end of your work if you have
combined images into your own work.
The following sites host only CC0 works, or link
to only those works.
Pixabay has photos, vectors, and videos licensed under CC0.
Pexels bills itself as the world’s first inclusive royalty free
photo site.
Creative
Commons allows to search specifically for images that can
be modified.
Free Photos uses the APIs from a few stock photo providers
and gathers images in one place for easy preview and download.
Every
Pixel uses artificial intelligence to search across
sites with photos licensed under CC0.
Kaboom
Pics has
search by color and orientation options.
LibreShot has
photographs from Martin Vorel that can be used and modified in any way.
RawPixel’s collection of public domain images has older
artworks and illustrations.
Unsplash features modern, minimalist photography.
