(Truly) Free Photos

Finding photos to use off the Web can be a dicey affair. Enter Free Use Photos (flickr.com/groups/freeuse), a new Flickr collective, in which any image can be used for free, in any way, and without attribution. Two library professionals, Tony Tallent, director of youth and outreach services at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, and his colleague Lori Reed, training specialist for the library staff, cooked up the idea based on a simple concept. Members upload images, which users can download and reproduce without having to secure permission. “We wanted people to not jump through hoops,” says Reed.

The site’s attracted 90 members thus far, who have contributed more than 508 images, from close ups of artfully arranged sushi to whales swimming off the coast of Gloucester, MA. Eager users include one schoolteacher who plans to use the images for school assignments, says Tallent. Despite widespread use of the Creative Commons license, which enables creators to share their original work for use by others, Reed says, “I think people still don’t understand the way Creative Commons works or how to apply it.”

“This fueled the need and desire for a quick way to get to photos,” says Tallent. “[Free Use Photos] is true social networking, peer to peer.”