All of these resources should either point you to material in the public domain, licensed under the Creative Commons, or material that is Royalty Free or Rights Managed. Please check the license agreements carefully before moving forward with any use of materials. If you have any questions about the legality of your use, please consult with an attorney.
Also, best use of the materials will be gained by reading the pages on Public Domain, Fair Use, the Creative Commons, and Right of Publicity on this site before proceeding. Or at least before you start choosing material to put into your film.
Some of the pages listed here claim to host public domain material, but that’s no guarantee that it is, in fact, in the public domain.
As of January 1st, 2024, with very few exceptions, material published in the U.S. in 1928 and before should be public domain. Please check the Copyright Duration Databases and Tools page for resources and information on determining copyright status of any individual work. I’ve also tried to outline some basic issues and pitfalls to watch out for when using public domain material there.
Even a site like Pixabay, where their content has been dedicated to the public domain, has terms of service. It’s probably good to get used to automatically looking at the terms of service of any site that you consider getting material from.
And, even though attribution of public domain material is not required, it’s good form to put any material that you did not create in your credits.
- Origins of American Animation, 1900-1921
– Library of Congress - Copyright information – Origins of American Animation
– Library of Congress
- National Archives – Images
Material from the National Archives is mostly public domain but check under “Use Restriction(s)” - National Archives FAQ
- NASA Images
NASA images are mostly free to use unless created under contract, and you can’t imply that NASA is endorsing your project or use NASA logos. - Media Usage Guidelines
– NASA - Pixabay
- Terms of Service
– Pixabay - Unsplash
- License
– Unsplash
- Content Directories – Creative Commons Wiki
- Wikimedia Commons
- Creative Commons Search
- Flickr – Creative Commons Content
I’ve just listed these commercial sites here to get you started. They appear to have reasonable license terms for independent films. Please do your own research with regards to reviews of their services and commercial practices before deciding on a company to do business with.
- Getty Images – Licensing
The license talks about the distinction between their royalty free and rights managed licensing. Also, to my knowledge, both iStock and ThinkStock are now Getty. - Content License Agreement
– Getty Images - Shutterstock Editorial
- License
– Shutterstock Editorial - Terms of Service
– Shutterstock
Please note that for Shutterstock Editorial, you need the extended license if the budget for your film is over $10,000
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