Creative Commons

Below are links to resources to help you find great sounds, images, etc. for your TRIO Quest activities. NOTE: you must follow Creative Commons rules for citing the creators and the license of the work.

Creative Commons Search
A search engine of search engines to find images, video, music, etc.

Creative Commons Content Directories
Lists projects (audio, video, image, text, other) with Creative Commons licenses. This page is built by Creative Commons’ authors, photographers, musicians, etc. Be sure to check the type of license for each project.

Citing a Creative Commons Image – YouTube video
Nice example on how to find and save creative commons images from Flickr, and how to cite them.

Copyright Free: An Introduction to Creative Commons – YouTube Video
Fun and easily understandable explanation of copyright law and how to find copyright free images. “It was created as a preliminary to other videos describing Creative Commons, public domain, and other resources.”

Simple Creative Commons image search – YouTube Video (followup to Copyright Free: An Introduction to Creative Commons above)
Provides a brief overview of Creative Commons but quickly moves to how to find Creative Commons Images through Google’s, Advanced Image Search option and how to narrow and focus the search. Also touches on attribution and displays an improper use of a Creative Commons license.

behold – Search High Quality Flickr Images (that are free to use!)
Just type in a topic and click “free to use” then Search. When you find an image you want to use, click the “Some rights reserved” link under Additional Information and note: 1. The type of license, 2. What you are free to do with the image, and 3. What the conditions are. Also: copy and paste the url of the image. You will use ALL this information for your citation/attribution of the image. 

Flickr Creative Commons
Browse under each type of license to find images from Flickr users that have chosen to offer their work under a Creative Commons license. Also describes each license on the side of the page for easy reference. 

Legal Music For Videos, Creative Commons
“Many musicians choose to release their songs under Creative Commons licenses, which give you the legal right to do thinks like use their music in your videos.” Be sure to properly credit the music and the track as well as list the Creative Commons license the track is under; this means to link to the track, link to the artist, and link to the type of license. See a citation example within this site.

Creative Commons Mayer & Bettle Animation – YouTube
“Short promotional animation created for Creative Commons Australia, explain the use of Creative Commons licensing” with an emphasis on music. This is a creative and funny video that not only is informative about Creative Commons, but about creating an animation video as well.

Cho PD – Free Music 2 - YouTube
Watch this fun message about Creative Commons using Creative Commons.

ccMixter – “You already have permission…”
“ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want.” Editors’ Picks are good. NOTE: Once you open a link to a song, note the Creative Commons license on the right and cite accordingly. Also note the “site credits’ link at bottom of page. “Download, Sample, Cut-up, Share.” Nice!

digccMixter
“digccmixter is devoted to helping you find that great music, all of which is liberally licensed under a Creative Commons license so you already have permission to use this music in your video, podcast, school project, personal music player, or where ever… We even have several 1,000 tracks that already have permission to use in commercial projects for free.” Check out Instrumental Music for Film, YouTube Videos and Soundtracks. Great for DigiMedia and TRIO Site videos. NOTE: mouse over the cc beside a song to see the type of Creative Commons license and cite accordingly. Also note credits under “about”.

Danosongs.com Royalty Free Music
This is Dan-O’s personal site to present his original songs that are Creative Commons Royalty Free Music. All his songs are free with a link or credit (he gives an example how to do so). Just scroll down the site and choose from categories within Instrumental Music (Acoustic Guitar, Country Music, Orchestra and Strings, Meditation and Relaxation Music, Techno/Electronic, World Ethnic, Game Music) or Songs with Vocals (Rock, Best Techno Remixes, Top Acoustic Guitar, Free Blues). Wow!

The Freesound Project
“A collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds.” Its focus is sounds, not songs which “sets it apart from ccMixter”. Great for DigiSites and DigiMedia entries! You will need to register in order to download, but it is easy and fast. NOTE: for proper Attribution, go to the Attribution List under Control Panel in the left column; here you will find some data on all your downloaded sounds to help when you cite/attribute (remember to cite the license: Creative Commons Sampling Plus 1.0).