Guides: North Metropolitan TAFE: Reusable content: Finding &amp; Using CC Material

Search Creative Commons (CC)

Image by Creative Commons under CC BY 4.0 licence

About the Creative Commons Licences Fact sheets about the licences, including 'Creative Commons Licences Explained'.
Creative Commons Australia Site Contents: Learn about CC, using a CC licence or licensed material, finding creative commons licensed materials, information for specific sectors and CC-AU news.
Creative Commons Information Pack for Teachers & Students The pack explains what CC is, how to find CC material and the best way to attribute CC material.

Clip On What Are Creative Commons Licenses?

Search Tools For Finding Creative Commons Images

Search for CC images using these search tools:

Flickr Advanced Search Allows you to search for material based on its “usage rights” Type keywords into the search box. From the drop-down menu under "Any license", choose "All creative commons".
Flickr CC Portal Allows you to search the Flickr photo archive for CC material.
Google Advanced Image Search Enter keywords in the search box. Scroll down to narrow your results to "usage rights", and choose "Creative Commons Licences".
Openverse Free images with easy attribution. Openverse search engine hosted on WordPress (formerly CC Search). All Openverse content is under a Creative Commons licence or is in the public domain. Browse through over 600 million items to reuse.

Websites For Finding Creative Commons (CC) Images

Use CC licenced images wherever possible as they are free and easy to use. Listed below are CC licenced image repositories:

Burst Find free stock photos available under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.
Clker.com An online sharing service where users share free CC0 public domain vector cliparts.
CSIRO Science Image Library Contains science and nature images that are free to download under a CC licence.
Encyclopedia of Life Contains images depicting life on Earth. Most content is available for re-use under a CC licence.
Europeana Digital resources of Europe’s museums, libraries and archives. Not all the works are openly licenced so check for usage rights.
Negative Space A free stock photo website enabling photographers to gain exposure for their work by sharing their images under the CC0 licence.
Openclipart All clipart on this site is available under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.
Pexels Photos are licenced under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence for personal and commercial use. You may modify, copy and distribute the photos without seeking permission.
Pixabay All pictures are published under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.
StockSnap.io Features an easy-to-use search function and a huge collection of high-quality images released under Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.
Stock Up Each photo shows the licence when you hover over it. Most are Creative Commons Zero (CC0), some are public domain.
Stockvault Provides access to photographs that can be used for personal and non-commercial design projects. They are available under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.
Unsplash All photos are licenced under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.
Wikimedia Commons Provides images licenced under Creative Commons licences so are not subject to copyright restrictions.

Where To Find CC Licensed Music

Bensound Bensound’s Royalty Free Music. Free to use with attribution.
CCHits Collaborative podcast where users can contribute, find, and share music under CC licences.
ccMixer Music on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons licence. You are free to download and sample from music on this site and share the results with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Some songs might have certain restrictions, depending on their specific licences. Each submission is marked clearly with the licence that applies to it.
Filmmusic You are free to: Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format Adapt — remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. This license is acceptable for Free Cultural Works. The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the licence terms. Standard licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
Free Music Archive Free Music Archive is known for free to download music licensed under Creative Commons.
Freesound Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds. Browse, download and share sounds.
Jamendo Music Jamendo uses Creative Commons licenses to enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted work. CC licenses all grant 'baseline rights', such as the right to distribute the copyrighted work worldwide for non-commercial purposes, and without modification.

Where to Find CC Licensed Videos

Elephants Dream Open source film. The movie “Elephants Dream” and all data on the DVDs and almost all of the contents on this website is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution licence. In short, this means you can freely reuse and distribute this content, also commercially, for as long you provide a proper attribution.
Pexels Video The best free stock videos shared by the Pexels community.
Pixabay Video Stunning free stock video footage & clips. Thousands of free stock video clips & footage shared by our talented community.
TED A collection of CC licensed short talks on topics from all disciplines and across all cultures.
Vimeo Vimeo has a dedicated page which allows you to search CC licensed videos within its elements such as Attribution and Share Alike.
YouTube Using the YouTube search filters, you are able to search for material by keyword and refine your search to show only material available under a CC licence. Below is a step-by-step guide to using the YouTube filter to find videos released under CC licences. Step 1. Do a search and find the filters option. Step 2. Filter results : after you do a search on YouTube, click on the filters option. Under ‘Features’ select Creative Commons.

Finding Creative Commons (CC) Images on Google

How to find CC Images using Google Images:

1. Type in your search term / keywords into the Google Images search bar.
2. Once the results are displayed, click on Tools (under the search bar, middle of the screen)
3. Click on the drop-down menu under Usage Rights.
4. Choose Creative Commons licenses.
5. Click on the image you want.
6. Click on the License details (below the image)

How to find CC materials using Google Avanced Search Step-by-step guide to using the Google Advanced Search to find content released under certain ‘usage rights’.

Attributing Creative Commons (CC) Images

"CC licences require that users of the material attribute the creator. This means you always have to acknowledge the creator of the CC material you are using, as well as provide any relevant copyright information" (Smartcopying, 2022)

How to give attribution of a CC - licenced image: TASL

Title - Provide the title of the image.
Author / Creator - Credit the creator or photographer with a link to their page (if applicable)
Source - If the resource was obtained online, hyperlink the title to the URL of the original source where the image is hosted.
Licence - Indicate the type of CC licence it is available under and hyperlink to the licence terms.

(Smartcopying, 2022)

"You can list the licence name in full, use the abbreviated form of the licence or use either the normal or compact licence buttons" (Smartcopying, 2022)

Below are the examples on how you can use the CC licence name:

In full for example Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic Licence
The abbreviated form for example CC BY 2.0
or the licence button
Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0) image by creative commons

How to attribute Creative Commons licensed materials "All Creative Commons licences require that users of the work attribute the creator. This is also a requirement under Australian copyright law. This means you always have to acknowledge the creator of the CC work you are using, as well as provide any relevant copyright information" (Smartcopying, 2022)
Applying a Creative Commons Licence This information sheet gives practical steps to include the Creative Commons Attribution licence on your website and in your publications.
Creative Commons Buttons & Icons Downloads Download CC logos from this page to ensure high quality.