This guide recommends sources for open media. Images, music, videos and other works posted on the internet are protected by copyright, but some creators license their work for others to use.
When you need to cite media, you should generally include:
Some licenses may require that you place the citation near the work, while others allow you to group citations together at the end of a work. Find out more about citation on the Cite and follow terms of use page.
Websites like Unsplash, Pixabay and Pexels offer high quality, stock photography-type images - and some videos - that do not require attribution and may be used commercially, shared by photographers under a CC0 (public domain) license.
Image by Bodoklecksel, CC BY-SA 3.0
Wikimedia Commons offers a wide variety of images, as well as some videos and audio files, in categories such as Nature, Society & Culture, Science, and Engineering. License terms of use vary. Wikimedia Commons is a great source for academic content.
The Noun Project is a platform for designers to share thousands of professional-looking icons under a standard Creative Commons license. Attribution is required.
Image by Oregon State University, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Creative Commons Search allows you to search across multiple websites for open images, video and music / audio. Websites include Flickr, Wikimedia Commons, Pixabay, and Google Images and Videos.
Search Google Images and select Tools > Usage rights to find open images with the type of license that fits your requirements.
To find Creative Commons videos in YouTube that are licensed for modification, enter as search and go to Filters > Features > Creative Commons.
Audio files are also available on YouTube in its Audio Library.
Use of copyrighted works requires permission from the copyright owner unless one of the exceptions in the Copyright Act applies. The Act contains exceptions that might apply, with “fair dealing” being an important provision within an educational context. If you want to copy/reuse a work and share it publicly, options include:
For more information, see the Durham College Copyright Guide.
This guide was created by Durham College Libraries and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License, except where otherwise noted.
