I have talked previously about how to obtain free content for domain development. A couple of questions were asked and I wanted to provide the answers here to ensure that no one takes action that might result in copyright infringement.
Free information for website development
You can read the full posts by clicking the links below but in a nutshell, there are two rules that can help you snag free content for domain development:
- a photo, drawing or book published before 1923
- US government data
I have outlined various sources that fall under these copyright exemptions in those posts. However the bottom line is that the responsibility to ensure that you are not infringing copyright rests with you. So I wanted to clear up two potential misunderstandings that may result in infringement.
LIFE photo archive going online
Google came to an agreement to put LIFE magazine’s photo archive online which will include about 10 million photos when the project is completed. Only a very small fraction of these have ever been published before. The LIFE photo archive is now available on Google image search tool.
Remember I said that anything published before 1923 was free from copyright? Well many of these photos were taken before 1923 so it may seem that you can use these without restriction. Actually the key is that “Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published”. It is the date of publication that matters, not the date the photo was taken. As such you should not use any photos from this archive without knowing for sure that that photo had previously been published prior to 1923.
I should say that some of the photos in the archive are really fantastic. You can see these photos online in the LIFE photo archive
Searching for images online
A second comment was made that you could search for images using the term “public domain images”. While this is true, it is fraught with danger. People may post photos or information to the web as public domain either by mistake or by deliberately ignoring the copyright.
Copyright varies by country and so the person who posts an image to the web in a country where it is legal to do so may label it as public domain. Someone who finds this image in another country may be violating copyright in their country.
Personally I prefer to get my public domain information from sources which I am sure of. If you do obtain an image or information from a source, the burden is on you to prove that copyright is not violated. Remember that aside from the exemptions I mentioned, there are only a few other exemptions which are harder to research and verify.
Past posts on finding and using copyright-free information
Here are previous posts that give you more information on sourcing and using copyright-free information.
A Christmas gift of free pictures
How to use Google Books to obtain text and pictures without copyright restrictions
Using government data to develop your domains
Please note that none of this should be construed as legal advice and you should verify the copyright laws in your country.
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Wow! Thanks for posting this. I had not heard about it.
Is there a way to tell if the picture has been published and if so on what date? Google seems only to be give the Date Taken date.
Unfortunately not usually. That is why I specify sources in the older posts (linked at the bottom of this post). Those sources are pretty reliable regarding publication date.
A Google image search is probably the least reliable way. I am always on the look out for new free sources and will post them if I find any.