Category: Tech Tool Tips

Public Domain Sources

~ Mr. Breeze ~ 1 Comment
Creative workspace for content creation
Content creation using PD Sources by ChatGPT and kittehboi.

🎨 General Public Domain Search Tools

  • Creative Commons – An international nonprofit organization that empowers people to grow and sustain the thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture.
  • Europeana – Discover Europe’s digital cultural heritage.
  • Digital Public Library of America – A platform that brings together many collections of America’s libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.
  • Library of Congress – Use the largest library in the world online or in person!
  • Internet Archive – A non-profit library of millions of free texts, movies, software, music, websites, and more.

📚 Books & Text

  • Project Gutenberg – A library of over 75,000 free eBooks. The world’s great literature is here, with focus on older works for which U.S. copyright has expired.
  • Internet Archive – Over 20,000,000 freely downloadable books and texts.
  • HathiTrust – Home to millions of digitized books and publications.
  • Standard Ebooks – A collection of high quality, carefully formatted, accessible, open source, and free public domain ebooks that meet or exceed the quality of commercially produced ebooks.
  • Google Books – Find and download over 10 million free books and magazines, primarily classics published before 1925.

🖼 Images & Artwork

  • Wikimedia Commons – Many public domain images (check license)
  • Library of Congress – Search millions of items in many formats and languages.
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art – Over 492,000 images of public-domain artworks, is available for free and unrestricted use.
  • Rijksmuseum – This innovative platform opens a world of beauty and knowledge, where images, archival sources, stories, and research come together.
  • National Gallery of Art – Free open access image downloads are now available directly from the object pages located on this website. More than 60,000 images are available for download.
  • New York Public Library – Explore 1,070,667 items digitized from The New York Public Library’s collections.

🎼 Music & Audio

  • Musopen – Provides recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions.
  • Free Music Archive – Free access to open licensed, original music by independent artists around the world.
  • Library of Congress – Use the largest library in the world online or in person!
  • Internet Archive – Recordings ranging from alternative news programming, to Grateful Dead concerts, to Old Time Radio shows, to book and poetry readings, to original music uploaded by our users.

🎥 Film & Video

  • Internet Archive – Digital movies uploaded by Archive users which range from classic full-length films, to daily alternative news broadcasts, to cartoons and concerts.
  • National Archives and Records Administration – Audio-Video and Motion Picture Preservation Labs.
  • Prelinger Archives – Collects, preserves, and facilitates access to films of historic significance that haven’t been collected elsewhere.

📰 U.S. Government Publications

Works created by U.S. federal government employees as part of their job are usually public domain.

  • NASA – Discover our intergalactic multimedia collections.
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – The imagery showcased in the PHIL is historic in nature.
  • U.S. Geological Survey – provides access to over 180,000 publications written by USGS scientists over the century-plus history of the bureau.
  • National Park Service – search by keyword, location, or file type (including photos, videos, audio, webcams, and podcasts) and filter for high-quality images.

(Always check each site’s usage guidelines.)

Important Reminder

Even on trusted sites:

  • Always check the license on each item.
  • Confirm it is truly public domain.
  • When in doubt, double-check.

Public domain is powerful — and careful use keeps you safe and professional.

Using Public Domain Content

~ Mr. Breeze ~ Leave a comment
DJ Alfie at work desk
DJ Alfie at Work Desk by ChatGPT and kittehboi.

Understanding What’s Free and Legal

There’s a lot of free content on the internet. Some of it is in the public domain, which means you can use it legally. But you must be careful to understand the rules before you use anything.

Always Check Copyright

Before using any content, make sure it’s really free to use. If something is still protected by copyright, the website owner may get a DCMA Takedown Request telling them to remove the item.

Always confirm:

  • Is the work really public domain?
  • Has the copyright expired?
  • Is there clear proof it is free to use?

If you aren’t sure, don’t use it.

What Is Public Domain?

Public domain works may include:

  • Old books
  • Historical photos
  • Government publications

Public domain content belongs to everyone. You can:

  • Copy it
  • Share it
  • Change it
  • Sell it

You don’t need permission.

Here are some places to look to look for Public Domain content:

Even though you don’t have to give credit for public domain works, it’s still polite to do so.

Find more Public Domain Sources.

What Is Copyleft?

Copyleft content is different from public domain. The creator still owns the work but allows others to use it with some conditions. Many copyleft works use Creative Commons licenses.

Creative Commons licenses often include rules like:

Always read the license carefully.

How to Give Credit (Attribution)

If attribution is required, include:

  • The creator’s name
  • The title of the work
  • Where you found it (link if online)
  • The license name

Example:

File:Longcat (6435769739).jpg, Dwight Sipler from Stow, MA, USA, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

This protects you and shows respect for the creator.

Watch Out for Duplicate Content

Search engines can detect copied content. If you use public domain material exactly as it is, your website may not rank well.

Make your work more original and more valuable:

  • Rewrite it in your own words
  • Add your own ideas
  • Combine ideas from several sources
  • Check spelling and grammar
  • Make the tone match your style

What Can You Create with PD Content?

With public domain and properly licensed copyleft content, you can create:

  • Ebooks
  • Print books
  • Blog posts
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Email newsletters

… and more!

In Summary

Public Domain = Free to use.
Copyleft = Free to use, but follow the rules.

Where To Find Free! Ebooks

~ Mr. Breeze ~ Leave a comment

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.
— W. Somerset Maugham

Mr. Breeze's Favorite Ebook
Mr. Breeze’s Favorite Book

If you love to read ebooks, but your wallet is thin, there are many sites online for free ebooks. Here are just a few.

  • Your local library!
    Your local library’s web page probably includes eBooks and audiobooks to borrow. If you don’t have a library card, do get one! It’s free.
  • Project Gutenberg
    Project Gutenberg is an online library of over 70,000 free eBooks to download or read online. Much of the world’s great public domain literature is available. Many titles are also available as audiobooks.
  • The Internet Archive
    The Internet Archive offers over 20,000,000 freely downloadable ebooks. There is also a collection of 2.3 million modern eBooks that may be borrowed by anyone with a free Internet Archive account.
  • Open Library
    Open Library’s catalog provides links to discover, borrow, and read from the Internet Archive’s collections. Your Internet Archive account can be used to sign-in to Open Library.
  • Standard Ebooks
    Standard Ebooks provides beautifully-formatted editions of ebooks found in Project Gutenberg.
  • Ebooks.com
    400 of their most popular classics to read, free of charge.
  • For the Amazon Kindle:
  • You can, of course, borrow hardcopy from your local library.
    • Use InterLibrary Loan (ILL) to borrow books from other libraries. Ask the librarian.
    • OverDrive and WorldCat are both online catalogs to help you locate library books for ILL, including rare or unique hardcopy.

Do you have a favorite site for free ebooks or audiobooks not listed here? Please leave a comment.