Almost all of the downloadable images on the site are sourced from institutions around the globe that have adopted an open access policy to the public domain images in their collections, making them available to be used freely for any purpose, including commercial.

A list of some of these institutions can be found here.

Permission is therefore granted for users of the site to download, share and reuse these images with no restrictions attached.

Some images are sourced from Wikimedia Commons in which case we also mirror their stance on public domain images which states that “Photographs that carefully reproduce two-dimensional public domain work are also in the public domain”.
This is based on several court rulings around the world including The U.S. case of Bridgeman v. Corel.

The European Union (EU)’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market was adopted and came into force on 7th June 2019. Article 14 of the directive states that reproductions of works of visual art that are in the public domain cannot be subject to copyright or related rights, unless the reproduction is an original creative work.

A List of countries’ copyright lengths can be found here.