How do you use all of the tools here without getting in trouble from the media companies? Here are places to get music, pictures, sound effects, videos, and more. All of these sites give their materials away for free, but you have to give credit to the artists.
Creative Commons is a type of copyright that gives creators a way to share their work for free while retaining ownership. They offer six different licenses, and all a creator needs to do is attach one to his or her work. CC licensed materials are great for music, photos, sound effects, and more. You must be sure to follow the rules of the CC licenses, but they also give a lot more freedom than traditional copyright and are much easier to understand.
Please give credit when using Creative Commons material. The creators are letting you use their material for free, so it's the least you could do.
Want to learn more about Creative Commons, how it works, or how to cite it? Check out this useful infographic.
Creative Commons has an excellent list of places that offer music under their licenses. Here are some of our favorites:
You can find Creative Commons Licensed pictures on a number of sites.
The easiest is Wikimedia Commons. Everything there is licensed for others to use, but check to make sure you can alter it.
Flickr also lets you search by Creative Commons license. First do a search, then click on the Any License dropdown on top of your search results. You will see options to select different Creative Commons licenses.
You can download videos from YouTube using ClipConverter; however, you should only do this if the video has a Creative Commons license allowing you to use it.
You can check this on any YouTube video by checking the video info and clicking Show More. At the bottom of the video info, you will see the license type listed, either YouTube Standard License (do not download these) or Creative Commons. Any YouTube search can be filtered to show only Creative Commons videos by clicking Filters and selecting Creative Commons under Features.
Vimeo often hosts Creative Commons videos, too. Just search and on the right side of your results, click on More Filters to narrow your search by different Creative Commons licenses. If the original uploader has allowed it, these videos will include an option to download.
Don't forget that we have iPad Airs, iPod Touches, digital voice recorders, and camcorders at the 2nd Floor desk!