List of Public Domain stock footage companies

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

>> But if some photo contains logos and products you need to be careful. Using someone else's trademark commercially can get you sued.

This is also true of photographs you shoot yourself and has nothing to do with copyright. If you use a trademarked logo to promote your product or service you can be sued for violating the company's trademark. This is why you don't see many photos of kids with Mickey Mouse ears -- Disney is quite protective of their trademarks. So if you want to use a close-up photo of a Hot Wheels car featuring the logo to promote your muffler shop, forget it.

By the way, in an interesting twist of fate, Getty is being sued by the makers of those little Pine Tree air fresheners for trademark infringement on a stock image they represent. There is a thread about it on this board. Karma must be a... well you know.

Another thing to be aware of... the artist or creator of certain landmarks and statues may hold a trademark on that artwork. I know the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce claims trademark rights over the Hollywood sign's image and demands license fees for commercial use.

So it's a minefield out there no matter what you do. Maybe we'll just go back to text-based internet browsing circa 1994.

[Mulligan]

Peeved, that's a good warning since Getty Images is being sued for Trademark violation for having on its sites photos that contain the little pine tree air freshener image.

I hope Getty Images gets stuck with a huge judgment against them -- it would be wonderful to see karma at work against these "copyright compliance" barracudas who are so quick to attempt to legally extort money from mom and pop website owners.

[Peeved]

Not that Flickr has ever been free or public domain, but to those who like to "share" images and perhaps God forbid use them for "commercial purposes", Getty has teamed up with them as well. I was not aware so if this is old news, my apologies.

http://www.flickr.com/help/gettyimages/

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

I was NOT aware of this. Thank you.

By the way, I was suggesting you contact the photographer and ask for permission to use their image and then keep a record of that. But now that I see Flickr has aligned with Getty, I say forget it.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

I found another source for clip art and cartoon images at:
http://www.wpclipart.com/

The owner of the site seems pretty "on it" when it comes to verifying that the images are in the public domain. Hi FAQ page tells why he does not offer legle indemnification: "Folks have been known to sue (or more often threatened to sue) even if they do not have a legitimate claim."

Anyway, just another resource to add to the list.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

Here's a list of 12 public domain stock sites. Many of these have been mentioned, but some have not.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/12-best-places-to-get-free-images-for-your-site-624818

Also check the comments and there are some other sites that offer stock images. One that caught my eye was http://www.photl.com. The images there are free for non-commercial use. But they only cost a buck for commercial use and are available in very high resolution. And some of there stuff looks as good as what I see on GI or MF.

As always, I suggest keeping track of where you source your images from.

[Peeved]

I came across this when looking at Bing today. I am still not easy with using stock photos period but thought it was worth posting anyway.

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Free+Images+No+Copyright&qpvt=Images+Free&FORM=RESTAB

http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Free+Images+No+Copyright&view=detail&id=FF5EEF66C7F0FEBDCD223B02A241244E27AEC67B&first=0&qpvt=Free+Images+No+Copyright&FORM=IDFRIR

Interesting from the page of one of the photos:
Common question: Can I download royalty free images for commercial use?
Short answer: Yes. Free of charge.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

I haven't posted to this thread in a while and I thought I'd add another image source to the list:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Wikimedia organization provides a large number of images. Many of these are in the public domain or released under the Creative Commons license. I have even found images that Getty is selling on there. (These images are in the public domain and listed as such on the site. Getty just sells them to suckers.)

I know several people advocate against getting "free" images of any kind from the internet, often deciding to shoot their own or hire a photographer. However, it is my belief that if you carefully read the permissions granted and document the source, you should be able to push back against an infringement claim.

[gotletter]

I just read this:
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/05/metropolitan-museum-of-art-releases-400000-hi-res-images-into-the-public-domain/

basically, it states that the Metropolitan Museum of Art, well you can tell by the name of the URL.

However.. I am unable to find any information about it on the actual Metro website..

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

GotLetter, I looked into this further and found this link on the Met site:

http://www.metmuseum.org/research/image-resources/frequently-asked-questions

It seems the images are free for "limited non-commercial, educational, and personal use." So a research paper, and academic article or a personal blog would be covered, but a banner ad or a commercial site decoration, not so much.

Anyway, thanks for pointing this out. It gives me an excuse to bump my list of public domain images up again.

[Jerry Witt (mcfilms)]

I would like to add the following to the ongoing list of public domain stock image sites:

http://www.nypl.org/blog/2016/01/05/share-public-domain-collections

[bernicem77]

I'll second the motion to sticky this post!

Another site worth looking at is http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

They offer 2 options for royalty free licenses . "This licence comes in two flavors: "Free" and "Purchased". The only difference between them is that if you use a free image you must publish the name of the image creator adjacent to where the image is used.  Purchased images do not have this requirement.

The purchase price seems to be much lower than the other stock companies, but the choices are also limitied.

I no longer use any stock image companies, I now create my own images or insist that my clients supply them, knowing the risks involved.

Just looking for pictures, and this site is now owned by iStock/Getty