Copyright, Public Domain, and Fair Use Explained

The Creative Commons organization manages six types of licenses that vary in their openness of use, ranging from allowing any type of use as long as the creator is attributed to only allowing personal use of the original work.

Each of the license types were written in conformity with international copyright treaties and adapted to the local laws of more than 50 countries. When choosing free stock images licensed by Creative Commons, users should be aware of the six Creative Commons licenses.

CC BY – attribution

This license allows others to distribute, modify and adapt the image, even commercially, as long as the copyright holder is credited.

CC BY-SA – attribution, share-alike

The license allows others to reuse, modify and adapt the work, even for commercial use, as long as the original copyright holder is credited, and any new creations are shared under identical terms -- i.e., share-alike. Often compared to open-source software licenses, any new works that use any part of the original image must carry the same Creative Commons license. CC BY-SA is most-commonly associated with Wikipedia.

CC BY-ND – attribution, noderivs

This license allows for the redistribution or content -- whether commercial or noncommercial -- as long as it is used unchanged and in whole, and the original copyright holder is accredited. In other words, no derivatives of the original work are allowed.

CC BY-NC – attribution, non-commercial

This license allows others to use, modify and adapt works for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original creator is credited. Any new works that use any part of the original work must also be attributed to the original creator and be used non-commercially, although they do not have to license their own derivatives on the same terms.

CC BY-NC-SA – attribution, non-commercial, share-alike

This license allows others to reuse, modify and adapt works for non-commercial use, as long as the original copyright holder is credited and new creations are licensed under identical terms as the original.

CC BY-NC-ND – attribution, non-commercial, noderivs

The most restrictive of the Creative Commons licenses, content can be downloaded and shared with others as long as the copyright holder is credited, but images cannot be changed in any way or used commercially.

The images, videos and music found in the links below are all FREE, copyright free or creative commons materials. Although you can use them freely, it's always nice to site the creator whenever possible. With the exception of Canva, the creator's name is usually listed on the download screen.

• St Adobe Stock

• Pixabay

• Pexels

• Canva
  Canva uses images from Shutterstock, which is rich with photo and clipart options. First you must start a project like a document, then choose Elements...and search for the image and add it to your document. To save it, click Share...Download and choose .jpg or .png.