Nov 9, 2009

Multimedia Content

Sure we all want our websites to look really great but copyright issues plague all of us when it comes to trying to find images, video or audio on the web for our blogs or website projects. One solution to this problem is to use multimedia content that is free or only requires some simple attribution. I have identified a few websites that will further enhance your website or blog without burdening you with additional expenses.

If you are looking for free public domain multimedia content try checking out the Creative Commons website. This website allows you to send your query to Google (web), Google (Images), Flickr (Images), blip.tv (Video), jarmendo (Music), and SpinExpress (Media)all at once. You can search one of two ways: (1) for commercial purposes (2) or something that you can modify, adapt, or build upon: The following short video explains this website in more depth.



Another website to explore when looking for photos for your blog or website is everystockphoto.com. This website searches photos under numerouse free licenses. You can search by popular tags, top 1,000, latest photos or just by typing your query in the search box. Once the search results are displayed you just click on the image you would like to consider using and it will display the title of the image along with an info, license, diclaimer and report tab. Icons that appear below the picture indicate the manner in which you must attribute the work which has been specified by the author or licensor even though the image is free to use. Many photos are linked to the following page and include the following information: "For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work. The best way to do this is with a link to this web page."

Last but not least, one of my personal website favorites for finding audio, video or movie clips is called InternetArchive. Once you locate the clips you would like to use, you usually have the option of either streaming the content or downloading it to your computer. There are so many clips available on this website and many of them are from long ago. I found myself spending a lot of time on that website just searching the various categories and viewing the available content. Once again make sure to check the attribution requirements before using the content. I hope I've introduced you to some new resources that will help you either now or in the near future.
Posted by at
Labels: ,

7 comments:

  1. James AltmannNovember 10, 2009 at 12:12 PM

    Thanks Patty. It definately can be tough finding free artwork that you can use. For the record my images came from free distribution sites. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Helen SteegNovember 10, 2009 at 5:24 PM

    Thank you for the information. It is always helpful to find new resources I can use in my projects. I like the fact that they are free and easily accessible.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Matt MagerNovember 10, 2009 at 6:25 PM

    Patty, you're making me worry a little bit! Most of the time when I need images I just have my girlfriend take shots for me since she's a photographer, but there are times when I just grab an image from a Google search, and I guess I should be more careful with that. Thanks for the info!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ahmed AledreessiNovember 10, 2009 at 9:24 PM

    Thanks for the post Patty! I have actually used everystockphoto.com and I think it's a nice website. I will probably take a look at your favorite one as well. Thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ivaylo DimovNovember 11, 2009 at 9:49 AM

    Patty,
    great post. This information will be definatelly useful in my carreer. I really think that I should create a file or something that I can save all the tips I am getting by reading our blog posts. I have the feeling that many of us think and find the information mentioned in the blogs as usefull, but after a while we forget about it. The problem is later on in a few years we would wish to have that information again.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Michelle KahlerNovember 11, 2009 at 6:36 PM

    Thanks for the information to find images and such. I have found it difficult at times finding pictures that I can use. Especially with my personal project. I was looking for photos of various lakes and ran into the problem of trying to save pictures, but wasn't able to. These resources would have made it a little less time consuming.

    ReplyDelete
  7. DJ MocutzNovember 11, 2009 at 7:20 PM

    I think were all guilty for adding a pictures to our blogs or websites. I personally go to Google images and grab whatever image i need. I normally use images for for fliers i design i photoshop. The bad thing about this site is the free audio or images a pretty cheesy.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)