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SP211 Prof. Lewis: Find Media

What material can I use?

You are free to use . . .

  • Your own stuff: If you have photos that you've taken, your own song that you've recorded, a video that you've made, you can use these in your digital story. If you have photos of people (friends, family, strangers), you may need their permission to use the image (more on that soon).
  • Material you have been given permission to use: The creator has given permission through a license, such as Creative Commons, or you have written to and received permission from the creator to use the material.
  • Material whose use you believe falls under fair use: If after doing a fair use analysis using the fair use checklist you believe your use of the material falls under fair use, you can use the material.

Google Advanced Search

To find pictures that are "Free to Use" scroll down on the Google Advanced Search Webpage to Usage Rights and select Free To Use.

Find Images on Google that you can Reuse

Find images on Google that you can reuse

When you do a Google Search, you can filter your results to find images, videos, or text that you have permission to use. To do this, you’ll use an Advanced Search filter called “usage rights” that lets you know when you can use, share, or modify something you find online.

Find images, text, and videos you can reuse

  1. Go to Advanced Image Search for images or Advanced Search for anything else.
  2. In the "all these words" box, type what you want to search.
  3. Scroll down to the "usage rights" section.
  4. Using the drop down, choose what kind of license you want the content to have.
  5. Click Advanced Search.

Before reusing content that you've found, verify that its license is legitimate and check the exact terms of reuse stated in the license. For example, many licenses require that you give credit to the image creator when reusing an image. Google has no way of knowing whether the license label is legitimate, so we aren't making any representation that the content is actually or lawfully licensed.

Different types of usage rights

  • Free to use or share: Your results will only include content that is either labeled as public domain or carry a license that allows you to copy or redistribute its content, as long as the content remains unchanged.
  • Free to use, share, or modify: Your results will only include content that is labeled with a license that allows you to copy, modify, or redistribute in ways specified in the license.
  • Commercially: If you want content for commercial use, be sure to select the appropriate option containing the term commercially.

How usage rights work

Anyone can browse the internet, but usage rights are important if you're looking for content that you can take and use above and beyond fair use. Site owners can use licenses to let you know if and how content on their sites can be reused.

The usage rights filter in Advanced Search shows you content that is either labeled with a Creative Commons or similar license, or is in the public domain. For images, the usage rights filter also shows you images labeled with the GNU Free Documentation license.

Report incorrect usage rights

If you find content with the wrong usage rights in the search results, let us know in the Google Search Forum.

Copied from the internet (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/29508?hl=en) on 9/25/2014

Keeping Track of and Citing Photos

Below is a link to a handout that will help you keep track of the photos you find for this assignment.

Photos