Free content

Open source and public domain cultural resources

August 31, 2014 — October 7, 2024

content
making things
photon choreography
Figure 1

Are you an inveterate remixer? Do you have a taste for collage? A blog you wish to illustrate with public domain images?

Here I note repositories of legally available content for remixing and mashing up. (Check for remix rights in your local jurisdiction, I ain’t no lawyer.)

1 General

  • Open Culture tracks “675 Free Movies, 550 Free Audio Books, 600 Free eBooks, 170 Free Textbooks, 300 Free Language Lessons…”. AFAICT everything here is legit but once again, be careful and check the laws in your jurisdiction.

2 Audio

This is a major passion of mine, so I have too many opinions about it to fit under a subheading. See sample libraries, musical corpora.

3 Images

See free content: images.

4 Books, pretty and/or interesting

See free content: books.

5 Clip art and icons

6 3d models

See 3d data.

7 Film

  • World’s cinema has copies of many art-house films. Provenance unclear and thus suspect.
  • Content on torrent aggregators like torrends.to, thepiratebay.net, demonoid.is, ww1.1337x.buzz, 1337x.to and rarbg.to is not necessarily violating copyright, but in practice, 90% of the content one finds there will be in violation in most western jurisdictions, and it is best to steer clear if you wish to be safe from committing copyright violations.