Thursday, March 22, 2018

copyright - Differences between "Royalty-Free", "Public Domain", "Creative Commons" etc


Is there a simple summary somewhere (or can someone provide one) of all the different kinds of legal terms for how and where we can re-use someone else's images?


For example these terms are bandied about and they all sound reasonably similar:

Royalty-Free
Creative Commons (which seems to have a bunch of subcategories)
Public Domain
... and others


These terms are easily to google but it's hard to work out where terms are simply synonyms for each other and where there are subtle differences.


For example, on Flickr the status of images are clearly labelled and you can click through for a definition (somewhat legalese) on CreativeCommons.org. But Google Images search (Advanced) has a filter which is deliberately "plain English": enter image description here


So an overview, not too legal, would be great.


This is asked from the point-of-view of a web designer looking to browse and use other people's images in (commercial) websites, but correctly and fairly. Not an author looking at protecting my own copyright.




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