Finding royalty-free images and sounds on the web can be a real headache. Even with the Google advanced filters or platforms like Pexels and Pixabay, there is always a risk of coming across content that could cause you legal problems. That's why it is crucial to choose your sources carefully. Today, I'm talking to you about Openverse, an essential tool for finding content from the public domain or under Creative Commons license.
Openverse gives you access to more than 800 million images and sounds royalty-free. If you are about to launch a creative project, it is essential to pay attention to the licenses of the content you use. Of course, there are many platforms offering content under permissive licenses such as UnDraw, StickPNG, or even Vecteezy. But the last thing you want is to receive a takedown or payment order for using a non-royalty-free image.
This is the whole point of a tool like Openverse.
Openverse: 800 million free sounds and images at your fingertips
For the record, Openverse takes over from CC Search which was the official search tool of the Creative Commons site (an organization that advocates the free sharing of works and which is at the origin of the license of the same name). The objective of this search : provide simplified access to royalty-free content.
As with a classic search engine, you must enter a word or expression in the search field. You can also choose the type of media you are looking for (for now image or audio).
On the search results page, Openverse offers pretty neat filters. They are divided into three main categories: the type of use (e.g. “Commercial” or “Modify or Adapt”), the licenses (Public Domain, CC0, and all variations of Creative Commons), and safe browsing, which is crucial for avoiding sensitive or NSFW content. Next to the license types, a question mark displays a pop-up that lets you understand what you can do with the media found. For example, the CC BY-SA license requires you to credit the creator of the content and share the media under the same conditions.
While this tool is really handy and well-designed, it is still important to note thatOpenverse does not verify the validity of the licenses of the works it offers.. Although the information provided includes the name of the creator, the source and the latest available data, the final verification always rests with the user.
For the moment, Openverse focuses on images and audio files, but the ambition is to also offer video files, 3D files, texts… to offer no less than 2.5 billion free resources in the long term. All the sources used by Openverse are grouped on a dedicated page which allows us to understand and explore the origin of all these resources.
But the best part is thatOpenverse is completely free, does not require any registration and is available in several languages, including French.
