Finding Free Images - Public Domain and Copyright Issues

All images used by guest contributors on LetsHangOut.com (Online Dating, Relationship and Love Topics) must not have copyright infringement issues and images must be allowed to be used commercially. To use images in your articles, you must either:

  • Own the rights to the image and/or have the copyright owner give LetsHangOut.com written permission to use the image.
  • Use Creative Commons 0 (CC0) or Public Domain Images that anyone can use for free without copyright permission.
  • Properly attribute images, IF the copyright owner allows it. Click here to learn how to properly attribute images. Some copyright owners will allow you to use images, only under the condition that they are attributed.

Sources of Free Images (CC0 and Public Domain)

Here are a few places that offer free stock photos with little to no copyright conflicts. Some images require at least an attribution.

Paid Sources of Images

In some cases, you may need to pay for images. Please note that even if you pay for the image, only you have the rights to use the image. The licenses do not extend to LetsHangOut.com, which means we do not have the right to use the image unless we purchase the license as well. Some of these stock photo services we have used in the past and we can sometime use in guest posts depending on whether we have a current subscription with them at any given time:

Attribution Examples - How to Properly Attribute Images

In many cases, such as for many images hosted on Flickr, you may be allowed to use images for free and for commercial use, but an attribution is required. Here are some great examples for Creative Commons 2.0 License attributions: Best Practices For Attribution. Shows examples of the right ways and wrong ways to set up an official and legal attribution to images that are allowed to be used.

There are different Creative Commons (CC) licenses available. For example, "CC BY" means all you need is an attribution and nothing more. "CC BY-SA" is the same thing, but has ShareAlike (SA) included. Some are "NC" (or non-commercial). Here is an excellent site showing the various CC license types that must also be included in attribution: Creative Commons License Types. Note that CC0 / Public Domain (PD) images are the least restrictive and can be used anywhere without attribution requirements.

Below is an example of a properly attributed image that we found on Flickr.com. The image was copyrighted, but the copyright owner allowed anyone to use the image under the condition that it was properly attributed:

Online Dating Tips Valentines Day Photo: "Piazza Erbe wired" by Dino Quinzani is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0