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A free resource for finding video to include in your own works
Target audience: Cause organizations, nonprofits, NGOs, journalists, general public
Where can you find video clips and footage to include in your own works? See our extensive directory below.
(If you’re looking for photos to use in your work, see our Free Photos Directory. For music, see the Free Music Directory.)
Here are some places where you can find video snippets that are always legal and safe to include in your video podcast, videoblog or online video:
Archives and repositories
Internet Archive
Internet Archive is a nonprofit digital library with thousands of videos and audio recordings, many of which are in the public domain or available under Creative Commons licenses. The Audio archive is divided into sub-sections; the largest collections of podsafe music can be found under Open Source Audio, where you’ll find hundreds of songs, from the Grateful Dead to classic recordings. Video material — including short films, documentaries, video clips and other footage — can be found in the Moving Images archive and the Prelinger Archives. (RSS feed).
Ourmedia
Ourmedia is a free repository and open media community supported by the Internet Archive. You can browse content by media type or use the search engine to find podsafe audio and video. Thousands of user-created videos are available under Creative Commons licenses.
Creative Archive Licence Group
Creative Archive Licence Group is a UK initiative, set up by The BBC, the bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University, that allows UK citizens to share and reuse content, under the terms and conditions as set out in the Creative Archive Licence. The open archives and collections can be found via the "For download" link on the side menu. Materials include clips from programs and still images.
BitTorrent and P2P file sharing
LegalTorrents
LegalTorrents provides a collection of Creative Commons licensed audio and video distributed via BitTorrent.
SpinXpress
Outhink’s SpinXpress is a free p2p service that lets you invite anyone into a private, secure network for collaboration in creating and sharing large media files, including videos. What you get depends on whom you invite.
Public Domain Torrents
Public Domain Torrents offers free and legal public domain movies for download via BitTorrent technology. You can choose from hundreds of classic films, animations and B-movies sorted by category. There are versions available for PDA, IPOD, PSP and some movies can be streamed via Google Video.
Catalogs and collections
Creative Commons Search
Creative Commons-licensed videos can be found through Creative Commons Search or the Creative Commons Directory Directories: Featured Video Sites.
Collaborating, remixing and sampling
Remix Commons
Remix Commons is a network of free culture projects in the UK promoting remix culture. You can find all types of content including video recordings released under Creative Commons licenses.
Distribution platforms and licensed content
Elektrobong Corporation
Elektrobong Corporation is a content distribution platform providing high quality audiovisual content directly from the creators.
Documentaries, movies, video clips
Blip.tv
Blip.tv is a free videoblogging, podcasting and video sharing service with thousands of grassroots videos, many of which are licensed under Creative Commons.
Lulu TV
Lulu TV is a video site where creators share their works under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs license. Videos can easily be embedded in blogs and web pages using the supplied code. Content creators may register a Shareholder account and get paid based on the amount of traffic a video receives. No advertising is used on the site or in videos.
Maker Faire VJ Clips
Maker Faire VJ Clips (2006) is a collection of short clips created for live video mixing. Shot on April 22, 2006, at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, they are now available under a CC Attribution 2.5 license.
Metavid
Metavid offers archives of public domain Senate and House footage under a free-document license, facilitating collective reuse and annotation of archived content. You can search video metadata using text queries to find keywords associated with the recording. To view the clips in a web browser you need Firefox and Annodex.
NerdTV
NerdTV is a weekly technology show from PBS.org columnist Robert X Cringely featuring one-hour interviews with leading technology experts. The NerdTV mpeg4 video, mp3, ogg vorbis, aac audio and text transcripts are distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally copy, redistribute, extract, edit and modify the shows.
Revver
Revver provides the tools for users to upload and share video clips. All videos use a Creative Commons Share-Alike license, which permits redistribution. Clips can be embedded into blogs or websites using the automatically generated code. Short advertisements are attached to the end of videos as part of a revenue sharing model for users.
Educational
Berklee Shares
Berklee Shares provides a library of free music lessons in audio, video and print-ready formats, including mp3 audio lessons, QuickTime video lessons and PDF text/graphic/notation lessons. All content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial license. It can be used, copied or distributed only for noncommercial educational purposes. No modifications or derivative works may be made.
University Channel
University Channel is a collection of public affairs lectures, panels and events from academic institutions all over the world. Audio and video materials are available to the public for viewing, listening, streaming and downloading under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial Sharelike license.
Live music
FurtherNet
FurtherNet is a peer-to-peer network and community that shares legal live music and video only.
Netlabels
Epsilonlab
Epsilonlab is a Montreal-based audio-visual label dedicated to promotion of innovative electronic music and digital art. Releases include CDs, DVDs and a constantly evolving repertoire of downloadable audio-visual files. Content is licensed under a Creative Commons license.
Loca Records
Loca Records is a Brighton (UK)-based copyleft label that releases music and videos under Creative Commons licenses.
Podcasts and feeds
Big Contact
Big Contact provides tools to help you find and publish audio and video podcasts. You can create your own customizable streaming media site and add streaming media players to existing sites. The community is based around sharing music with Creative Commons licenses and is useful for finding podsafe media.
More information
• The Creative Commons Podcast Tools page provides links to podcasting legal guides, practical advice and other information for podcasters.
UK-based David Holmes, a former sound engineer and indie studio/label manager who blogs at Dave’s Imaginary Sound Space, contributed to this directory.
Notice: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, compatible with Wikipedia.
Please comment on, correct or expand upon this article. We’ll give you credit. JD Lasica, founder and former editor of Socialbrite, is co-founder of Cruiseable. Contact JD or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.
