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Finding Free Images To Use Legally

By DrJBHL on May 17, 2014 8:07:19 AM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

DrJBHL

Join Date 04/2002
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The ‘But it’s on the Internet, so it’s free’ questions always come up. The fact it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it’s free, or that you can use it any way you please.

“There's a simple solution: search for images "licensed for reuse" -- images that you may legally use. Both Google and Bing may be set to show images with this license. The license exists thanks to Creative Commons, a nonprofit organization founded in 2001. The organization promotes legal sharing of created work, and the creators specify reuse terms and conditions.” -  TechRepublic

There’s a good way to search out the ones which are free to use, free to use and modify…well, there are 6 licenses with increasing restrictions on usage… is with Google Apps and CreativeCommons.

On CreativeCommons, the least restrictive is “Free to use with attribution”, the most requires attribution and prohibit both the creation of derivative works and commercial use, and you can learn about them here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/

There’s a really good article about it here: http://www.techrepublic.com/article/four-ways-to-find-free-images-to-use-legally-with-google-apps/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

This is just to help you in your search for usable images. If you upload images and artwork to CreativeCommons, you’ll even run into their licensing tool to help you create the proper licenses for your work.

WC enforces the policy that IP (intellectual property) is sacrosanct…if you’re in doubt about an image, just ask Jafo or the other Gallery Mods. If you use an image not of your own making, you have to have the license included in the zip along with the image/s, unless it’s fan art. Nothing new about that.

I hope the Gallery Moderators will chime in. I’m only bringing you awareness of a tool available to you in your searches, and simplifying (hell, over simplifying) the rules of the game.

I’ve also tried to centralize some tips and rules governing uploads/moderation, etc. here:

Sources:

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/four-ways-to-find-free-images-to-use-legally-with-google-apps/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

http://forums.wincustomize.com/326043/page/1/

http://www.wincustomize.com/upload-guidelines

http://forums.wincustomize.com/319604/page/1/#3010562

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Reply #1
RedneckDude
Join Date 04/2009
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May 17, 2014 5:39:08 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Good post!  

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Reply #2
neone6
Join Date 12/2010
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May 17, 2014 5:57:56 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting RedneckDude,
reply 1

Good post!  
Yeah, it's a Steal ! 

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Reply #3
Jafo
Join Date 03/2001
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May 17, 2014 8:04:49 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

One of the BIGGEST issues Moderators have is with  mis-interpretation of a source site's T.O.U.

'Free for personal use' does not always allow redistribution - but sometimes it does....when you read further.

 

Also....BIG POINT...

If the 'source' site has a comment along the lines of 'all these images are free....la...la...la...but if one of these is yours and you wish it removed please contact us.....etc...'  then you CANNOT use ANYTHING from that site.

NOTHING.

Reason....they only THINK they are free to use....but clearly did NOT source them from their legitimate owners and thus cannot guarantee their authority to release.

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Reply #4
Uvah
Join Date 05/2006
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May 18, 2014 6:23:40 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

I often grab images from the net through Google. Each time I make note of the author. This way I can give credit in a screenshot and a link to the image page. Most are free to use but I have found some that come with strings attached. One will say free for personal and/or commercial use and ask for a link to the site should you decide to use it. The only ones that don't have strings are the ones that say 'copyright has been' waived or something to that affect. I play safe and assume all have strings.

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Reply #5
Rusty23
Join Date 05/2014
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November 24, 2014 4:12:27 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

 Very useful websites, thank you so much! I only knew of one from the list (Creative Commons) and used whatever relevant images I could find there. By the way, isn't it like if you give any image proper credits (along with a link), it becomes free to use, since you have openly credited the person (say, photographer) in question?

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Reply #6
DrJBHL
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November 24, 2014 5:03:20 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Rusty23,
reply 5

By the way, isn't it like if you give any image proper credits (along with a link), it becomes free to use, since you have openly credited the person (say, photographer) in question?

Good question, Rusty23.

It's one thing to credit the original artist, quite another to use his work in any way. Merely crediting the original artist doesn't give you permission to alter/modify/use and/or distribute the image. That's what licensing is all about.

In order to use/modify, etc. the original artist's image, you must have permission to do so for personal/home use, or commercial use, or both. You also have to have permission to distribute the modified image.

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Reply #7
Jafo
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November 24, 2014 7:21:08 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Rusty23,
reply 5

By the way, isn't it like if you give any image proper credits (along with a link), it becomes free to use, since you have openly credited the person (say, photographer) in question?

No, crediting the original author is what you do AFTER FIRST obtaining consent to use his/her work....

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Reply #8
RickJP
Join Date 11/2007
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March 30, 2015 2:17:11 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

mine are now on JoeUser and are total free to use any way anyone wants to.

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Reply #9
Stanley Tarrant
Join Date 03/2006
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March 31, 2015 8:48:08 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

I will eat a pile of doo doo if ONE person, ONE person reports after a gaming session that a company, police, etc. is suing them for copy right infringement for using an image that was obtainable off of a legit website (i.e. not off a pirate website, and you can just right click and save to desktop) in galciv3.

 

Come on, ONE person.  If companies and law enforcement are going after this, then they must have excellent supply of money to burn.

 

Its like car alarms.  I am waiting for one time in my life, just one time, where if a car alarm is going off, someone was genuinally trying to steal a car.  Everytime I have heard a car alarm, it was caused intentionally or unintentionally by some idiot driver who accidently or intentionally activated it.  Car alarms are the ultimate boy who cried wolf situation.  Car alarms are about as useful as movie credits.  If you aren't the actor or director, no one knows who you are, yet we have wasted millions of hours of labor and material costs just to add a few minutes of useless credits onto each movie ever created.

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Reply #10
Jafo
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March 31, 2015 9:09:25 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,
reply 9

Car alarms are about as useful as movie credits. If you aren't the actor or director, no one knows who you are, yet we have wasted millions of hours of labor and material costs just to add a few minutes of useless credits onto each movie ever created.

See....that's where your interpretation of reality doesn't correlate with the world's view.

Movie credits are the same as a signature on a painting.  It is the actual list of people who are harmed by film piracy.

You can be an uncaring slob and walk out during the credits or even before them....better still, if you cannot appreciate the people who create the film....simply don't go.

What actually totally SHITS ME is the ignorant arseholes of TV network penny pinchers who overdub the film credits with advertising for the next pathetic instalment of some shitty reality TV show - made for peanuts and aimed at the lowest common intellectual denominator.

 

But I agree...car alarms are less than useless.  Get an engine immobilizer. [or 2 pounds of C4 and a trembler switch]... 

 

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Reply #11
Stanley Tarrant
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March 31, 2015 9:16:43 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

Oh, and not saying its right or anything.  I am just saying enforcing image copyright in galciv 3 would be about as challenging as enforcing only missionary position sex in the military.  Technically, per the uniform code of military justice, other forms of sex are a violation and considered sodomy, but you dont have military enforcers in every bed room confirming the position.

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Reply #12
Stanley Tarrant
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March 31, 2015 9:22:26 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 10

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,
reply 9

See....that's where your interpretation of reality doesn't correlate with the world's view.

 
 
 
I know, but all places of employment in america dont keep an up to date "credits" file of every person that ever worked there in one document.  sure, its in databases, but think about it... When a car is made, are you given a document that credits every little person who halped make your car when you purchse a car?  You buy a big mack at McDonald's does the manager scramble to give you a quick list of the server and cook who prepared your burger?  I know a moive is a big production, but other big productions dont warrant a direct acknowledgement of credits.
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Reply #13
Jafo
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March 31, 2015 9:27:24 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

A hamburger isn't 'a big production'....what results in the dunny after eating such plastic crap would classify as such, however...

Cars of the 'class' of Aston Martins have their engine builder credited via a plaque in the engine bay...so that analogy doesn't fit totally, either...

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Reply #14
Stanley Tarrant
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March 31, 2015 9:27:56 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 10

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,
reply 9



You can be an uncaring slob and walk out during the credits or even before them....better still, if you cannot appreciate the people who create the film....simply don't go.

 
 
 
I am curious how much hours of labor go into producing movie credite.  How many hours of labor go into checking and rechecking the spelling in movie credits.  How many manager hours spent approving the final list.
 
Take a popular movie, say Braveheart.  Find a random creidt.  Say the secondary props producer or something completely random who is not an actor or the movie director.  Ask a million people who the secondary props producer was.  I will absolutely amazed if 1 person says , "oh yeah!!!  I know who did that!
 
Now, the real question.  If credits weren't produced...  How much would it raise everyone's salary if all those hours of labor werent put into the credits?
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Reply #15
Jafo
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March 31, 2015 9:30:39 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Oh, and most of just about every car you'll find native to the US would only end up with 'build credits' like R2D2 and C3PO, et al.  Humans don't get a look in.  That's why Motown is bankrupt...

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Reply #16
Stanley Tarrant
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March 31, 2015 9:32:20 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 13


Cars of the 'class' of Aston Martins have their engine builder credited via a plaque in the engine bay...so that analogy doesn't fit totally, either...

 

 

Cool, but what about the admin clerk who paid the bills to keep the lights on so the engine builder could build the engine?  Etc., etc., unless the engine builder was by him-her self

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Reply #17
Stanley Tarrant
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March 31, 2015 9:34:28 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 15

Oh, and most of just about every car you'll find native to the US would only end up with 'build credits' like R2D2 and C3PO, et al.  Humans don't get a look in.  That's why Motown is bankrupt...

 

 

Ahhhhh yes, the good old production fallacy.  More production must mean less employment.

 

Weird, I suppose I could pay 50 people to cut my grass with scissors over several weeks or just grab a lawn mower and do it myself in an afternoon.  Why aren't all the grass snippers protesting the modern gas lawn mower?

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Reply #18
Jafo
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March 31, 2015 9:36:33 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Your quote functioning is screwed...

However, there are far bigger issues on this planet than the imagined man-hours involved in listing a film's credits.

On a similar vein...compare the man-hours involved in creating a crossword puzzle....and THEN calculate the LOST PRODUCTIVITY of all those attempting to solve it...and often in 'work hours'.

 

You know, the last Stardock game I installed I only did so to check out the credits...."oh look...there's someone I know....or someone I've met..."  Stardock's games generally are not my cup of tea.  My interests are elsewhere...

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Reply #19
Jafo
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March 31, 2015 9:40:12 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,
reply 17

Ahhhhh yes, the good old production fallacy. More production must mean less employment.

No, more robotic production means more production of robots.  It does NOT automatically follow on to more car production...or more employment in the car industry...or any other such relevance to Detroit/where-ever.

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Reply #20
Jafo
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March 31, 2015 9:42:37 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Stanley Tarrant,
reply 17

Weird, I suppose I could pay 50 people to cut my grass with scissors over several weeks or just grab a lawn mower and do it myself in an afternoon. Why aren't all the grass snippers protesting the modern gas lawn mower?

For all you know [or care] they just might be...

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Reply #21
Stanley Tarrant
Join Date 03/2006
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March 31, 2015 9:53:39 AM from Galactic Civilizations III Forums Galactic Civilizations III Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 18

Your quote functioning is screwed...

However, there are far bigger issues on this planet than the imagined man-hours involved in listing a film's credits.

On a similar vein...compare the man-hours involved in creating a crossword puzzle....and THEN calculate the LOST PRODUCTIVITY of all those attempting to solve it...and often in 'work hours'.

 

You know, the last Stardock game I installed I only did so to check out the credits...."oh look...there's someone I know....or someone I've met..."  Stardock's games generally are not my cup of tea.  My interests are elsewhere...

 

- Why are you threatening my quoting?  What did it ever do to you?

- Never said anyting about the magnitude of the issue.  I agree that something like genocide in Africa is a bigger issue.

- What people do in their spare time is their business.  They are off the clock and therefore not being paid.

- Man hours involved in creating a cross word puzzle is well spent if it leads to high entertainment value and reasonable profit, as it must.  Man hours involved in entertainment counts as productivity in the economy.  Never said man hours allocated to the entertainment industry like those allocated in Stardock to make awesome video games, was wasted or stupid.  I appreciate those man hours allocated from you and other at Stardock!!!  What I am postulating is that man hours given specifically to credit production might be stupid

- When galciv3 is released with full release of credits to go with the game, I will ask on the forums to honestly tell me who X was and say no cheating.  People will likely go dig in the credits and cheat, but if an honest survey were done, I am not sure if one person tells me who the admin cleark or some other random credit at Stardock was.

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Reply #22
ElanaAhova
Join Date 09/2008
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August 17, 2015 12:49:27 PM from Elemental Forums Elemental Forums

Quoting Jafo,
reply 20


Quoting Stanley Tarrant,
reply 17

Weird, I suppose I could pay 50 people to cut my grass with scissors over several weeks or just grab a lawn mower and do it myself in an afternoon. Why aren't all the grass snippers protesting the modern gas lawn mower?



For all you know [or care] they just might be...

 

Actually, Luddites of one flavor or another are a part of each change/upgrade in production cycles.  part of the human cost of 'progress' is some people lost their jobs, livelihoods, dignity, etc.   So lets just *snip* this in the bud  ...  

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Reply #23
DrJBHL
Join Date 04/2002
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August 17, 2015 1:49:44 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

And to think...I wrote the post to help folks stay out of trouble, and feel good that they're playing by the rules...not to mention keeping to the submission guidelines of WC. 

 

Quoting Jafo,
reply 3

One of the BIGGEST issues Moderators have is with  mis-interpretation of a source site's T.O.U.

'Free for personal use' does not always allow redistribution - but sometimes it does....when you read further.

 

Also....BIG POINT...

If the 'source' site has a comment along the lines of 'all these images are free....la...la...la...but if one of these is yours and you wish it removed please contact us.....etc...'  then you CANNOT use ANYTHING from that site.

NOTHING.

Reason....they only THINK they are free to use....but clearly did NOT source them from their legitimate owners and thus cannot guarantee their authority to release.

Indeed...those sites with weak or non-existent Moderation sell their advertising based on the fact that most artists actually spend their time creating their work, not cruising looking for violators of permission to use vs. permission to distribute for non-commercial vs. commercial usage.

That's far from playing by Hoyle.

 

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