Skip to Main Content

Rights-Free and Rights-Implied Media & Content: Using Video

A guide to using and finding rights-free and rights-implied media and content for non-commercial purposes.

Rights-Free or Rights-Implied Video Repositories

Where to find Creative Commons, Public Domain, and other "rights free" videos.

Finding Creative Commons-Licensed Videos on YouTube

YouTube provides an easy way to quickly find Creative Commons licensed videos. After running your search (Step 1 in the screenshot below) , toggle on the "Filter" feature (Step 2 in the screenshot below) to generate new Filter drop-down menu, and then select "Creative Commons" from the Features column (Step 3 in the screenshot below).

Steps for finding Creative Commons-licensed videos on YouTube. Those steps are explained in the accompanying explanation above this image.

Searching for Creative Commons Licensed Vimeo Videos

Vimeo provides an easy way to quickly find Creative Commons licensed videos. After running your search, toggle on the "Show Advanced Filters" button to generate a "License" drop-down menu that allows you to filter on videos by each type of Creative Commons license.

Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user Colleen Greene.

Searching Vimeo for Creative Commons licensed videos

Remixing Video with YouTube Creative Commons

The YouTube "Video Editor" allows registered users to browse and search for Creative Commons-licened YouTube videos, and free audio tracks, to remix into a brand new video. You must be signed in to YouTube.

Creative Commons licensed image by Flickr user Colleen Greene.

Remixing YouTube Videos with CC