The explosion in digital photography has created a massive storehouse of online images, both commercial and royalty free. But above all it has given rise to totally free photo archives, where you can download as many images as you need for your project completely free of charge. The secret lies in the use of a Creative Commons license, which is commonly used on photo services like Flickr.
The problem is, it’s not easy to find these images with conventional search engines. Which is why the CCfinder freeware program is so cool. The software lets you search for Creative Commons photos with different licenses, including with and without attribution and permissions. It’s fast, the results come from Flickr and there are also some simple filters available to turn the images sepia etc. All in all it’s a great little program, and one which could definitely be useful in the right circumstances.
I've not been able to find a copy of Abelssoft's privacy policy. CCfinder requires that the user provide name and email address to obtain an unlock code before the product can run.
Good point, I forgot to mention that. You can use a 'special' email address of course, which is what I did. Looking at their site, I get the feeling they're a very well established organisation and because they're German based, you're probably more assured of honest dealings.
Thanks for the comment.
I downloaded it and found it very limited in its scope. You're far better off using http://search.creativecommons.org/
Useless!