Copyright is a set of laws that protect creators of content from having that content republished without their permission. Creative work is automatically copyrighted to the person who made it as soon as it is created. When something is copyrighted, you cannot use it unless the person who made it says it is ok.
Your multimodal projects may not violate copyright. Use only properly licensed images, video, etc., or content that you produce yourself. The most common copyright violation students perform is by using copyrighted music in their videos or podcasts. Make sure that any content you use that you did not create is available to you under Creative Commons or other licensing. For more information, please see the guides to Copyright for Undergraduates, Copyright for Graduate Students, Copyright for Faculty, and the Guide to Using Creative Commons.
So how do you find material that you can use in your project? The best and easiest way is finding works that are licensed in such a way that you can use them for free. Creative Commons and Public Domain are two types of work that you should look for.
Creative Commons is a type of licensing that creators of content can apply to their own work so that other people can use them. If something is CC-licensed, it means that other people are allowed to republish and sometimes reuse the work. The CC-search tool is useful to search many sites for CC-licensed content. Not all Creative Commons work is available for use for every project. Creators can decide if the work can only be used for non-commerical projects or if it cannot be edited at all. Learn more about kinds of CC licenses. Also see the Guide to Using Creative Commons.
Citation in a multimodal project is just as important as in a traditional paper. Find out more about citing and creating a Works Cited page.
| Creative Commons Search | Use this multimedia search engine to find various types of CC-licensed items from sources including Google Images, Soundcloud, Jamendo, Flickr and more. | |
| Free Sound | A collaborative database of CC-licensed sound. Freesound focuses on sound and sound effects, not music | |
| Archive.org | Non-profit digital library with collections of digitized free movies, music, images, websites and more | |
| Free Music Archive | Interactive library of CC-licensed music grouped by genre, directed by WFMU, the longest-running freeform radio station in the United States. | | |
| ccMixter | CC-licensed music for film, video and games | | |
| CCTrax | CC-licensed music grouped by genre | | |
| Incompetech | CC-licensed and royalty-free music from one composer. Must provide credit to the composter, Kevin MacLeod. | | |
| Soundcloud | Audio-sharing site with a decent amount of CC-licensed music | | |
| Moby Gratis | Music released by electronic musician Moby. The music is free as long as it's being used in a non-commercial or non-profit project. | | |
| Jamendo | A huge free music library, all CC-licensed so you can modify, adapt and build on most works |
| Creative Commons Search | A Creative Commons search portal that provides convenient access to CC-searches on sharing sites | |
| Archive.org | Non-profit digital library with collections of digitized free movies, music, images, websites and more | |
| Flickr CC | A large image-hosting site with professional and amateur photographs | | |
| Wikimedia Commons | Online repository of free-use images, sound and other media files | |
| Pixabay | Community for sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0 which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist. | |
| Google CC Image Search | Search for various kinds of Creative Commons licensed images through a Google Image Search filter. We recommend "Reuse with modification" for most class projects. | |
| NASA Media Archive | Images, audio and video recordings related to space flight, astronomy and aeronautics created by NASA, most of which are not copyrighted. | |
| Perry-Castañeda Library | Maps that can be downloaded or organized by theme. Most are public domain or licensed for non-commercial use. |
| Creative Commons Search | Use this multimedia search engine to find various types of CC licensed items from sources such as Google Images, Fotopedia, Jamendo, Flickr and more. | |
| YouTube | The largest video-sharing website, which allows users to upload, view, share and find videos | | |
| Internet Archive | Non-profit digital library with collections of digitized free movies, music, images, websites and more. Check out VJ Loops for short, stylizer, loopable videos. | |
| Vimeo | Video-sharing website, more focused on high-quality creative content | | |
| Google Video | Use the Google Video search to browse the web for videos not necessarily hosted on YouTube | | |
| NASA Media Archive | Images, audio and video recordings related to space flight, astronomy and aeronautics created by NASA, most of which are not copyrighted. | |
| Videvo | | |
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