Pond5 Public Domain Project

Hey Everyone,

Here at Pond5 we've been hard at work for a big release today: The Public Domain Project.

Our little "Marketplace for Creativity" now hosts the first ever public domain media archive collected & tailored for content creators...copyright-free for perpetual use. At 80,000 items of historic footage, audio, images and 3d models (so far), we think you’ll find something useful.

Why’s it free? The answer is easy: it already belongs to you.

Public Domain content is already free through public archives and government agencies, but we’re the first to organize it for media makers at this magnitude so that it’s easily accessible and useable.

From the very start, it’s always been our mission to provide the tools and resources to empower creativity and we hope you enjoy the access to the this trove of historic content.

Please let me know if you have any questions, thanks!

Lovely collection.

Does this mean we can use the 3d models and other media types in our own royalty free collections as long as they are elements in a composition and not the primary focus?

Is there any way to add old footage from the 1930s and 1940s from our family archives?

Good job on the implementation, seems to be a great way for news and documentary productions to get some exposure to this content. For those that believe it will eat on your revenue I don't think the impact will be big. To some 3D modelers of space vehicles you might get some dips in sales but this content was already available on the net, this is just organization and display.

Thanks jamesbenet! We're really excited about it. :)

Yeah, indeed you can. Pond5 hasn't been accepting just regular public domain content for some time now, but we have continued to accept public domain work that has been sufficiently altered such that value has been added and a new copyrightable work has been created. This continues to hold true for our own public domain collection.

For example, there are some 3D models in the public domain collection. You could take one of those models, animated it in a video, the upload and sell that video at Pond5.

If you'd like to help us by contributing to the Public Domain Project, we're certainly interested in talking with you. Shoot us a message at <support@pond5.com> or you can email me directly at <jonathan@pond5.com>. :)

Thanks Jonathan,

Looking at my archives I will have to see what is scanned at HD resolution since most of my old family reels are on NTSC. If that is the case then it won't make any sense to upload any of it. So many reels have been destroyed by time and humidity so re-scanning is not an option.

The collection is great in a magical sort of way already, this material should help create derivative works of importance for decades in education and news delivery.

I've checked some music there and found that some tracks were recorded not long time ago (before copyright expires).
Does it mean I still can use them?

I'm asking 'cause I have some PD tracks in my portfolio (orcherstrals) but it does not make them 'free' as I invested my time and efforts to create the recording (in other words - music is free, but its recording is not).

P.S.: anyway, nice move to boost exposure.

When doing a normal search why have Public domain mixed in with the RF results. It seems we are encouraging free and not just offering it. My suggestion is have the Public Domain search separated from the RF that we all need to sell. I just see mixing PD will direct them away from RF. Of course the best option is when in the PD search to give the option to include RF but keep PD out of the RF search results.

Few years ago I was asked by an Agency to give away one of my timelapse during the weekly "download this video for free" promotion. Initially, I was not sure to agree, but then the man who contacted me promised that my account would have a big exporsure, and the sales of my other files would boost, so he convinced me. The footage was about a night timelapse of the Coliseum, and was downlaoded almost 1k times during that period. In that week and in the following 3 months I had zero sales in that Agency, but the biggest problem was that since that week my most (paid) downloaded videos were about that same subject, and after the promotion those sales dropped.
What I'm saying is that in theory P5 Public domain collection will give exposure to other footage, and I'm sure P5 stuff did it for that reason because anyone likes to loose money, but what I think, looking at my very little real life experience, is that it can happen something different.

I agree with you, footageforpro. The shockwaves of your Coliseum giveaway also affected the sales of my own Coliseum timelapse clips. The results of such a huge move are unpredictable.

That is why PD searches should be separate with an option to show RF. RF searches should NOT show PD results. I also did the free clip a couple of times at different agencies and also gave away nearly a thousand downloads and sales showed absolutely no improvements afterward. We should see soon if it does draw more PAYING buyers to the RF side.

At least now the curators that were keywording and describing the PD can get back to curating our RF clips ;)

I guess I'm confused at the comments.
Are you guys saying that because this Public domain videos are free that will affect our RF clips?

If that is the case I don't see any correlation to RF and PD. They are two entirely different types of video.
In the example above do they have a PD version of a timelapse coliseum that will affect sales in your RF timelapse?