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Creative Commons in Word

Anonymous
2021-11-29T12:40:17+00:00

Hello!
When using Word, I noticed that many of the images shown after checking Creative Commons when inserting an online image, do not have licensing information. Does this mean that these particular images do not require citation/attribution?

Thank so much!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For education | Windows

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  1. Suzanne S Barnhill 277.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-11-30T13:01:49+00:00

    There's a LOT of information out there about Creative Commons--so much that when I googled for it in hopes of answering your question, I decided to wait and let someone more knowledgeable reply. But you may find more of what you're looking for at https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/ and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ If the license is "Public Domain," no attribution is required, and if you find no license information, then perhaps this is the type of license involved.

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-11-30T11:08:23+00:00

    Thank-you, Stefan -

    I appreciate your response. Many of the Creative Commons images/photos I find through Word do not have licensing data attached to them. Some of them do, which is great and I will use that information to give credit to the creator. However, many do not and I am not sure if that means they are free to use without a citation.

    Best,
    Connie

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  2. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-11-29T13:41:06+00:00

    I'm not a lawyer, but the way I understand it, you should credit the creator, whenever possible. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/?lang=en.

    See also the Microsoft support article at https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/tips-for-finding-clip-art-or-other-images-50ee063d-cb67-4fa1-be81-e97f07fffe8c.

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  3. Bob Jones AKA CyberTaz MVP 435K Reputation points
    2021-11-30T14:50:59+00:00

    PMFJI: Neither am I a lawyer nor do I claim to be any sort of authority. I just want to point out something which often goes unnoticed. It may be useful if you haven't explored it.

    Also, I'm using a Mac but I'm rather certain that the CC images are presented in the same way on a PC.

    Once the image is inserted it is accompanied by a text box which contains 2 links. The first provides information about that specific image. The second usually provides plain English licensing information for that specific image.

    Also, this article describes the various CC license elements.

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  4. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2021-11-30T13:01:36+00:00

    A Bing image search would let you filter the results by license type, which may help a little. This is mentioned in the article I linked to in my previous reply: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/tips-for-finding-clip-art-or-other-images-50ee063d-cb67-4fa1-be81-e97f07fffe8c. Maybe you have seen that already.

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