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Wikimedia Commons--Repository of public domain imagery, sound, and video

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Use this search engine to find copyright-friendly images or videos. Enter your search term and choose which site to search!

What is Creative Commons?

Citing a CC Work

All attributions should include the following:

Title - What is the name of the material? If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don't worry about it.

Author - Who owns the material? Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.

Source - Where can I find it? Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.

License - How can I use it? You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it. If the licensor included a license notice with more information, include that as well.

6 creative Commons Licenses

​Creative Commons provides six standard licenses built on four basic conditions, which can be searched by web search engines, and which automatically grant certain permissions without requiring correspondence with the creator.

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Attribution (CC BY):

This license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and/or perform a work, as long as the author/creator is credited.  All CC licenses require attribution. 

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​No Derivative Works (CC BY ND):

Under this license, others who reuse a work may not modify, adapt, translate, or remix the original, but must copy it exactly.

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Share Alike (CC BY SA):

This license requires others who use the work to share their new creations under the same license terms.  Based on open source software licenses, it is intended to build the "creative commons."

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Non Commercial (CC BY NC): 

Under this license, an original work may be reused, modified, altered, etc, but not used for any commercial purpose.

Two Additional Licenses Combine Terms:

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Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike: The original work may be used for non-commercial purposes, as long as it is properly credited, and the new work is licensed under the identical terms as the original.

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Attribution Non-commercial No Derivative Works: The most restrictive license, otherwise known as the "free advertising" license, provides that an original work may be reused for non-commercial purposes, as long as it is credited properly, and copied exactly.

[Source: Dingley, Brenda. UMKC University Libraries http://libguides.library.umkc.edu/creativecommons ]

Licensing Your Own Work

Choose a License: Use this widget to select a license and create an attribution that others can use.