US 101: First Year Seminar

Finding images not under copyright, for presentations:

Limit your search to images that can be reused in various ways with these search tools. 

• Google Images 
  • Turn on Tools
  • Filter by Usage Rights to 'Labeled for reuse'

• Creative Commons
  • ​Enter search term
  • Click the box for Flickr, Google, etc. to see images from those places that you can re-use

Image Copyright

It is easy to find and download images from the Web. However, your use of these digital images downloaded from the Web or scanned from a print source may be restricted by copyright.

The Digital Image Rights Computator can help you figure out whether or not you can legally use an image.

Creative Commons Licenses

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that has developed a standardized ways for creators to determine which rights they reserve and which ones they waive. Even though you do not need to obtain permission to use these images, they still require attribution (citation) when they are used.

Public Domain

Works by the U.S. Government are considered in the public domain and are not covered by copyright.

Some styles such as APA provide specific citation styles for images from the Web.

Generally, the following information, when available, should be included in your citation:

• Photographer, artist, or creator's name
• Title of the work
• Date created
• Repository, museum, or owner
• City or Country of origin
• Access date and web site address (URL)

Information on Citing Images from Wikimedia Commons (from Scientific American)