Oscraps

NEW Copyright 'Safe' Places to find images to use on layouts

wombat146

wombat146

ONA - Administrator
CHEERY O
Please find below a list of sites where you are able to find and down copyright free photos to use in your layouts. As already discussed in our updated Gallery Guidelines all photos or main focal images used on layouts should now be credited as to where it was sourced from. This means that there are safe places where photos/images are provided free of copyright, and those places (like the internet in general) where it is not safe to download images from.

For instance, Pinterest is not a "safe" place to save images from to use in your layouts.
In their own words: "Where necessary, permission to use a given image or video that you find on Pinterest should be sought from its copyright holder. Pinterest does not have any information about who owns the copyright of a given Pin, and we are unfortunately unable to provide any information about how to get in touch with the respective copyright holder."

Unless you want to track down the original owner of the image and get permission to use it in a layout you create to upload to public gallery it would be wiser to find an image at one of the safer places listed below. There is a business license that can be purchased for Pinterest which would give you more permissions in using various images/photos but for the non-paying users it is up to us to find out about copyright. Unfortunately this means that if you credit your photo/image as coming from Pinterest on a layout for the Oscraps gallery then you may be asked to remove the layout if you do not have permission to use it.


This is a very good explanation on finding and using copyright free photos/images:
Finding and Using Photo Resources - Anna Aspnes Designs (blog post)
annaaspnesdesigns.com

Finding and Using Photo Resources - Anna Aspnes Designs

Today, Creative Team Member, Viv, is sharing guidance for Finding and Using Photo Resources for your photo artistry and scrapbooking layout designs.
annaaspnesdesigns.com annaaspnesdesigns.com


This is a list of 'safe' places to go to find photo/images to use on your layouts:
The sites below offer a free assortment of photos and a licensed assortment (which will have some sort of watermark on them). This is certainly not an entire listing, just some of the more popular ones, you may well have your own preferred sites that you use. Please feel free to post the name and link if you want to and it will be added to the list below so other people can learn about them.

Unsplash - https://unsplash.com/
(https://unsplash.com/license)

Pixabay - https://pixabay.com/photos/search/
(https://pixabay.com/service/terms/)

Pexels - https://www.pexels.com/

Raw Pixel - https://www.rawpixel.com/public-domain
(https://www.rawpixel.com/services/licenses)

The Old Design Shop - https://olddesignshop.com/

The Graphics Fairy - https://thegraphicsfairy.com/

Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/ Not everything on Flickr is safe to use. You need to search for the images that have 'no known copyright restrictions' - select this from the dropdown menu under 'Any License'; big sites like Rawpixel, New York Public Library, Biodiversity Heritage Library and many more, also have an account there with loads of images to download. And some of these sites, like Biodiversity Heritage Library, links back to Archive.org in many cases.

Library Of Congress - https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/

The Met - https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection

British Library - https://www.flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/albums/

New York Public Library - https://www.nypl.org/research/resources/public-domain-collections

Digital Commonwealth - https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/
(https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/copyright)

Archive.org - https://archive.org/ (MOST of it is public domain; there are exceptions, but it's always indicated).

Rijksstudio - Rijksmuseum - https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection
(images that are in the public domain are downloadable)


So please be careful in choosing the images you use for your layouts, this applies to not only the Oscraps gallery but any other gallery you are posting your layout to. You are the person who will be liable in the end if the rightful owner of the photo/image wants to take the matter further in terms of legal proceedings.
 
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Thank you for sharing the lists. It can get very confusing, and this will be a great help in figuring it all (okay, most of it, LOL) out.
 
• wikimedia commons
• anything you generate via AI - and once you alter it "substantially" to incorporate into your own art, you own the copyright of your art that includes the AI (but not of the original image)
• anything posted by a public official as part of their official duties, e.g. an official military photographer posting an image of soldiers or a forestry official posting pictures of trees. I have seen an occasional exception, but those are usually clearly stated.
• and at Flickr (and elsewhere), you can search for creative commons license - not just "no known copyright restrictions" - they can be used as long as you give credit. Sometimes the owner gives permission to alter and sometimes not, but that should be clearly stated in the license

and speaking of Pinterest, you should be very careful about what you pin. I've seen many complaints on the Pinterest subreddit about whole boards (even private ones) and even accounts taken down for copyright violations. Pinterest is policed by horrible AI bots these days. If someone files a copyright complaint or the bot decides that your picture of a kitchen knife you want to buy is an image promoting self harm or you pin something someone else pinned not knowing that it was problematic, the AI bot finds every instance of that image, removes the images and sends every pinner a nasty email. Even if you crop the image to remove what the bot probably found objectionable, you cannot repin it.
 
hoodsmom said:
• wikimedia commons
• anything you generate via AI - and once you alter it "substantially" to incorporate into your own art, you own the copyright of your art that includes the AI (but not of the original image)
• anything posted by a public official as part of their official duties, e.g. an official military photographer posting an image of soldiers or a forestry official posting pictures of trees. I have seen an occasional exception, but those are usually clearly stated.
• and at Flickr (and elsewhere), you can search for creative commons license - not just "no known copyright restrictions" - they can be used as long as you give credit. Sometimes the owner gives permission to alter and sometimes not, but that should be clearly stated in the license

and speaking of Pinterest, you should be very careful about what you pin. I've seen many complaints on the Pinterest subreddit about whole boards (even private ones) and even accounts taken down for copyright violations. Pinterest is policed by horrible AI bots these days. If someone files a copyright complaint or the bot decides that your picture of a kitchen knife you want to buy is an image promoting self harm or you pin something someone else pinned not knowing that it was problematic, the AI bot finds every instance of that image, removes the images and sends every pinner a nasty email. Even if you crop the image to remove what the bot probably found objectionable, you cannot repin it.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that information Caryn!
 
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