Appropedia:Using images in the public domain

There are many resources available on the net that are in the public domain, and therefore freely usable and unrestricted for Appropedia content. However, there are resources that Appropedia considers to be in the public domain and others not, or usable with restrictions.

There are also many copyrighted assets whose licensing terms are elastic enough that they can also be used.

According to copyright.gov, a work is in the public domain "if it is no longer under copyright protection or if it failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former copyright owner."

• Bing Images or Google Images as long as you filter results by license and select "In the public domain".
• Public Domain Image Archive: This website has made available images, books, films and audio files in the public domain.
• Wikimedia Commons
• Openverse
• British Library Flickr Page: Public domain images from the British Library's collection.
• Flickr & Flickr's The Commons: Flickr contains a list of items in the public domain, shared and maintaind by many institutions ranging from NASA to the National Library of Sweden.
• Getty Open Content Program: The Getty has an Open Content Program to "share images of works of art in an unrestricted manner, freely, so that all those who create or appreciate art…will have greater access to high-quality digital images for their studies and projects."
• Metropolitan Museum: In early 2017, the Met Museum implemented an open access policy, assigning a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) mark. The museum has shared over 406,000 images so far.
• NASA: NASA's website offers access to images, audio files, videos and 3D assets.
• National Gallery of Art (U.S.): NGA Images is a repository of digital images and datasets related to their collections.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: Most materials here are in the public domain according to U.S. law. The website requests you to credit NOAA if you use their images.
• USDA: The ARS Image Gallery contains high-quality digital photographs about crops, animals, field research, food and natural resources.
• Wikipedia maintains a list of other resources.

• Please check your results before assuming they're public domain. As a rule of thumb, US federal government (and only federal) sites are public domain unless there is a copyright or permissions notice that declares otherwise. This includes federal departments and agencies. Other levels of government will be copyright restricted.
• Beware of state, territory and local government laws., as copyright laws might apply for certain countries but not others, making the use of certain works tricky.

Public domain materials are an important source of materials for Appropedia pages. Here is how you can contribute:

• Explore the list of Appropedia pages without a main image.
• Search relevant public domain images that could be added to the page.
  • Ensure the content is public domain by reviewing the site's copyright notice, a web policies or permissions disclaimer.
• Port the content. The easiest way is to upload it. While content in the public domain does not require you to even credit the work, we advise you to add a description and a URL to the original media's source (for example, not only "flickr.com" but https://www.flickr.com/photos/nationaalarchief/5096295264/.
• Add the image to the relevant article on Appropedia.

• Finding Public Domain & Creative Commons Media (Internet Archive snapshot)