(a guide for faculty)
First things first. Copyright laws.
It should not come as a surprise to you that the content you see online could be copyrighted. There are laws in place that limit and forbid us from using or sharing content that we do not own. Ignoring these laws may complicate your life. Fortunately, there's TEACH Act and Fair Use, laws allowing educators to use copyrighted content for instruction.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that helps overcome legal obstacles to the sharing of knowledge and creativity to address the world’s pressing challenges.
Read more: Creative Commons
Creative Commons is only applicable to those protected by copyright while copyright covers original work. Read more: Difference Between Creative Commons and Copyright | Difference Between
Why Creative Commons?
The evaluation of the resources you'd like to use or reference begins with acknowledging it's ownership. Many creators license their digital work with one or more Creative Commons licenses. The author will make it visible on the page in very close proximity to their digital work. The absence of such licensing determines such digital assets unshareable.
Important information:
About The Licenses - read about types of Creative Commons licenses.
Policies and rules - read about Creative Commons policies and rules of use.
Creative Commons Platforms - content driven websites that use Creative Commons licensing for tagging and sharing work.
Global Commons - Creative Commons global network of creators and like minded sharers.
List of some free asset collections:
Google Fonts - a collection of fonts curated by Google and licensed under the Open Font License.
Google Images - allows you to search the web for images by a keyword or a key phrase.
Licensing: It also allows you to narrow the search to include only Creative Commons licensed work.
Mixkit by Envato - Awesome Stock Video Clips, Stock Music, Sound Effects & Video Templates. All available for free!
Licensing: On Mixkit, we have a specific license for each of our item types. Be sure you are aware of which license applies to the item you have downloaded.
- All photos and videos on Pexels are free to use.
- Attribution is not required. Giving credit to the photographer or Pexels is not necessary but always appreciated.
- You can modify the photos and videos from Pexels. Be creative and edit them as you like.
- Attribution is not required. Giving credit to the photographer or Pexels is not necessary but always appreciated.
- You can modify the photos and videos from Pexels. Be creative and edit them as you like.
BBC Sound Effects Archive - over 33,000 sound effects available for personal, educational or research purposes.
HTML Color Picker by w3schools - is a comprehensive color reference tool.
Smithsonian Open Access - includes images and data from across the Smithsonian’s 19 museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives, and the National Zoo and offers access to more than 3 million 2D and 3D digital items.
Pixabay - Over 2.4 million+ high quality stock images, vectors, videos, music and sound effects shared by our talented community.
Licensing: All contents are released under the Pixabay License, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.
