Download Pictures in Windows the Legal Way

Even though performing a simple search operations on any search engine gives you the possibility to download any image you find, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s also a good thing.

In fact, it all goes down to whether or not, and for what purpose you grabbed the picture from the web. Chances are, using it for your own personal interest, claiming that it’s part of your project might just get you into trouble.

Although available freely over the web, images are under strict consideration of the Creative Commons license. It’s specially created so that the rightful owners of digital creations have a saying in as to what extent their products can be used.

In order to avoid going through too much trouble, we’ve put together a few steps to exemplify how to safely download and freely use images grabbed from the web.

Checking the Creative Commons license

Step 1: Download, install, and run Creative Commons Finder.

Step 2: Uncheck the two options on the right. If left checked, these also show pictures that may not be used commercially, or changed.

Step 3: Choose to show Only pictures that are freely usable without limitation.

Step 4: Write down your query in the text input field and press Go.

Note: In case no results are retrieved, try a similar query, or choose to show Pictures that may only be used with a reference to the author.

Step 5: Select the picture you want to grab, and press Download.

To Change the download folder, you need to access the settings menu.

Double-clicking on an image lets you apply a few effects, view, and download copyright info.