Where can I find cat images that are both free and royalty-free?

March 21, 2006 6:21 PM

Where online can I find pictures of cats to use in an amateur music video, without worrying about permissions and legal mess?

My favorite band on earth, Grandaddy, is allowing its fans to make music videos for their next (and, sadly, last) album Just Like the Fambly Cat. The projects might never go anywhere beyond the Grandaddy fan community, but there is a small chance they would become part of a later DVD video collection, or maybe placed as a video on a CD single, or made available some other way that might be considered commercial.

For my project, I would like to use hundreds of images of cats (cut-out, without background, in various sizes) superimposed on landscapes and cityscapes. I don't think I'm allowed to just go to Google and take all the images I want; I mean, maybe I can and get away with it, considering I would be stripping all the background, and some of the images might be too small to be recognized by the owner/photographer. But of course, I would not want some owner out there just happening to recognize a candid shot of their Fluffy and calling a lawyer or putting a fatwa (catwa?) on me or the band.

I've checked out royalty-free sites and CD sets, but the price is way high...and it's not like the pics have to be such great-quality poses or anything...just like everyday kinda cat pictures...the less polished the better, even...but if i could even find some kind of deal under $100 (for hundreds of pics) i think i could go for that.

posted by troybob to media & arts (9 comments total)

You could search here.
posted by brundlefly at 6:26 PM on March 21, 2006

I second the use of The Stock Exchange. Perfect for what you have in mind.
posted by fvox13 at 6:27 PM on March 21, 2006

~8000 cat images here. Free (even for commercial use) but you'd need to give attribute the image to the creator(s).
posted by gage at 6:29 PM on March 21, 2006

Taking the photos yourself may be an option depening on where you live, and if you have a digital camera.
posted by fire&wings at 6:33 PM on March 21, 2006

You can search on tags within Creative Commons licensed photos on flickr.
posted by sad_otter at 6:41 PM on March 21, 2006

Doh.
posted by sad_otter at 6:45 PM on March 21, 2006

The Creative Commons site lists additional sources of CC-licensed images, including the CC search engine and OpenPhoto.net.
posted by mbrubeck at 9:31 PM on March 21, 2006

Bug people on the internet and ask them to send you photos. That's one way to do it. :)
posted by drstein at 10:36 PM on March 21, 2006

Hey guys...Stock.XCHNG was perfect...i downloaded until i reached my 100 pic limit for the day....so i'll run back tomorrow...

the flickr site looks cool as well, and i'm sure i'll use that one again...but with using so many images, i don't know that it would be practical to attribute each photo, or to submit the video and state that credits must be listed for it wherever it ends up...

thanks so much, everybody!
posted by troybob at 10:37 PM on March 21, 2006