Need great visuals for your video project but on a tight budget, or can’t get it yourself? Try public domain footage – free video clips you can legally use without copyright or licensing worries. Whether you’re creating a documentary, educational video, or even a personal project, these resources can be really useful, so let’s have a look at where you can find them!
Top 10 Free Public Domain Footage Sources to Use for Your Videos
What is Public Domain Video?
As I’m sure you know, stock footage is pre-recorded video that you can incorporate into your own productions. It can save you time and resources compared to filming every scene yourself, especially if what you want has already passed! However, copyright laws restrict the use of most footage, making proper licensing essential. This is where public domain footage is different.
Why Use Public Domain Footage?
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It’s free and legal. No licensing fees or permissions are needed, eliminating copyright risks and simplifying the whole process. Not to mention saving some budget for other things!
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Diverse content. Find a vast array of stuff, from historical archives and nature scenes to urban landscapes and abstract visuals.
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Creative freedom. Modify and adapt the footage to suit your needs.
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Accessibility. Often high-quality, professionally shot footage readily available for download.
Footage becomes public domain either when the copyright holder gives up their copyright to it, or when copyright expires. That expiration can be different depending on the country you’re in, so you need to be careful about double-checking anything you want to use.
Creative Commons Licensing – A Quick Guide
Creative Commons is a non-profit that created licensing terms to make sharing and attributing work more straightforward. Here’s a look at their licences.
CC0 / Public Domain / No Known Copyright
Let’s start with the license we’re talking about in this article, Public Domain. This could also be listed as CC0 or No Known Copyright. This means the work is free to use for anything, including altering the work, with no conditions.
CC BY-NC-ND
You can use the works with attribution, non-commercially and without altering the original.
CC BY-ND
You can use this as above, but including commercial use this time.
CC BY-NC-SA
You still need to credit the author and can’t use this commercially, but with thie license you can alter the original work, though this new work must then be licensed in the same way for others to use.
CC BY-NC
Only non-commercial use is permitted and you must credit the creator.
CC BY-SA
You must credit the creator but you can use it commercially, plus remix or otherwise alter the work as long as you license it under the same terms.
CC BY
You can do anything you like with it, including commercial use, but you must still include attribution.
And here’s a quick guide to what those letters mean at a glance.
BY
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You must include a credit/attribution.
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NC | Non-Commercial use only. |
SA | New works created from the content must be licensed under the same terms. |
ND | You cannot make new works . |
Top 10 Free Public Domain Video Sites
1. Internet Archive – Free Public Domain Videos
Internet archive is a non-profit library that gathers together millions of books, software, music, and of course, films. It has an extensive collection of free archival footage and you can search by keyword, date, or format. Each item should have its licensing agreement in the information that comes with it, and as anyone with an account can upload media, it’s always worth doing due diligence to make sure you’re okay to use anything you may find.
Resources aside, Internet Archive also have regular blog posts that are just really interesting if you have a curious mind! One of their recent ones was actually a celebration of public domain works, and things like this are worth keeping an eye on if you want to discover new works that are coming out of copyright.
2. Library of Congress – Free Old Footage
The Library of Congress has a bunch of great resources, though as you’d expect they’re mostly US related. You can browse millions of films, video, and audio recordings. One of its most valuable resources is the wealth of personal narrative videos it has – interviews with people from a variety of occupations and organisations that will soon drop out of living memory, so they’re a precious historical archive and potentially very useful if you’re creating documentary content.
As with Internet Archive, and many of the others, LoC has a great blog page that’s regularly updated. A recent one from this month talks about the Lifecycle of Copyright: 1928 Works in the Public Domain.
3. The Public Domain Review – Free Public Domain Videos
The Public Domain Review is another not-for-profit. It’s a journal that collects works related to the history of art, literature, and ideas. Rather than simply cataloguing archive items, it has a focus on things that are surprising, strange, and beautiful. If you’re looking for public domain footage that’s a little different, this might be for you. The collections are laid out nicely and it’s easier to navigate than some of the other sites. Even if you’re not looking for anything in particular, it’s fun to just browse! If you’re into old works in an aesthetic way as well as using them practically in your work, then you might be tickled to find out that TPDR has a little shop where you can buy quirky old prints, as well as books, t-shirts, mugs, and posters. Fun!
4. Pexels – Public Domain Video Clips (Contemporary)
So far we’ve seen a lot of sites that concentrate on archive footage and ephemera, but Pexels has a lot of free-to-use video that’s more up to date and contemporary. It’s easy to search for what you want and you can find a variety of video lengths and resolutions. The videos are free to download and use but you should still read their terms well as there are other rules – like you can’t use their videos to endorse a product, or resell any of the content.
5. Pond5 Public Domain Project – Public Domain Footage for Free
Filmmakers are encouraged to contribute to Pond5’s Public Domain Project to create a bank of film resources that are free and in the public domain. The content is quite diverse, from quirky animations, to free archival footage. You need to register for an account to be able to download the public domain video clips.
If you need more than some free videos, Pond5 has a service to help you with your project. Fill out a form and they’ll put together a collection of stuff to help, and they can do this to a budget you set – the service is free, but obviously licensing certain material isn’t!
6. Public Domain Footage – Free Video Footage in the Public Domain
The name sort of says it all really but this site concentrates on free video footage in the public domain. There’s a broad range of subjects, including free archival footage, and the licensing information is really clear. The site even says if you can’t find what you’re looking for you can get in touch and they’ll see if they have it for you!
7. National Archives – Public Domain Video Clips
The National Archives are the USA’s record keeper for just about anything that relates to the government. Explore newsreels, government films, educational documentaries and more, spanning decades and covering diverse topics. They’re searchable by keyword, date, and format, and you’ll even find some videos have high resolutions available. Again, not all footage is in the public domain so you need to make sure to check individual item descriptions.
8. OpenImages -Public Domain Footage, Free
Open Images mostly works under the Creative Commons model, so that any contributors can keep a certain degree of control of their material if they want to, but it also includes videos that are in the public domain. Their site is part of the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (in collaboration with Knowledgeland) to collect and offer up as many resources as possible, including a huge amount of free archival footage.
9. NASA – Public Domain Stock Footage
NASA’s media archive is a treasure trove of really breath-taking stuff, from planets, galaxies, and assorted space goodness. Coming from NASA, you can of course guarantee that any clips are scientifically accurate, and they’re entirely free to use for non-commercial or educational use, in a variety of formats and resolutions.
As well as having a lot of public domain resources, NASA regularly have live events that you can watch on their site, including space crews doing various exciting… spacey… things.
10. Wikimedia Commons – Public Domain Stock Footage
Wiki Commons has a huge collection of media files, including public domain videos. While anything in the public domain would be entirely usable, Wikimedia Foundation still recommend that you verify copyright status before use and that you ass attribution to any public domain video clips for provenance.
Free Video Footage in the Public Domain – Summary and What to Remember
Public domain footage opens doors for creative storytelling and budget-friendly projects. Most of the sites we’ve mentioned will fit documentary makers, or film-makers who focus on educational productions – but there’s something here to interest everyone at the very least!
Here are some important things to remember:
Verify Public Domain Status
While these resources are curated for public domain footage, double-check individual licenses to be sure you’re not breaking any copyright laws. It could be that someone has uploaded something that doesn’t belong to them and so you need to have demonstrably done your due diligence. A lot of sites rely on good faith for their uploads, and they don’t have the time or people-power to check everything.
Another issue here is that even though public domain footage is free from copyright restrictions, there may be things within that footage that need attention, like trademarked images, privacy rights, or sensitive historical content.
Attribution Options
Some platforms might ask for attribution, even for public domain footage. Credit accordingly, but even if they don’t ask for it, it might be wise to do it anyway. That way you’re showing you’re not trying to hide where you got it from, and also it’s good for helping with provenance.
Video Quality and Resolution
Download options may vary, so choose the appropriate format and resolution for your project’s needs. It’s always better to get the best quality copy of something that you can, you can always downsize it later if you need to. Not all public domain footage will fit well with existing footage, or work well with every piece of editing software. Make sure you’re downloading what you need.
Conclusion – Public Domain Stock Footage
With its free-to-use nature, public domain footage is a great resource. For obvious reasons, this type of video is mostly historical or archival, but not always – authors are frequently giving up copyright for short, contemporary clips on sites like Pexels, but they do still come with some rules. It’s best to double-check anything you want to use, as copyright rules vary from country to country, and even with the best of intentions some sites may list things that aren’t actually out of copyright.
If you’re looking for video clips to use in your film projects, then you’ll love Envato Elements, where you can access thousands of great resources for one monthly subscription, and use as many as you like!
Every month you’ll find some free files to choose from, too.
More Free Video Resources
About This Page
This page was written by Marie Gardiner. Marie is a writer, author, and photographer. It was edited by Gonzalo Angulo. Gonzalo is an editor, writer and illustrator.