So, I am a complete beginner. I found 2 website for image
Pixabay
Pexel
Both of them mentioned their images are royalty free. Can I use them in my choice script project?
Pixabay
Some of the Content made available for download on the Service is subject to and licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license ("CC0 Content "). CC0 Content on the Service is any content which lists a “Published date” prior to January 9, 2019. This means that to the greatest extent permitted by applicable law, the authors of that work have dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the CC0 Content worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. Subject to the CC0 License Terms, the CC0 Content can be used for all personal and commercial purposes without attributing the author/ content owner of the CC0 Content or Pixabay.
Pexels
Some of the Content made available for download on the Service is subject to and licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license ("CC0 Content "). CC0 Content on the Service is any content which is marked with “CCO” on the photo page. This means that to the greatest extent permitted by applicable law, the authors of that work have dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of his or her rights to the CC0 Content worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights. Subject to the CC0 License Terms, the CC0 Content can be used for all personal and commercial purposes without attributing the author/ content owner of the CC0 Content or Pexels.
Most content in Pixabay is available under the Pixabay license, and most content in Pexels is available under the Pexels license. That said, always double-check the license of a image before using it.
Regarding these licenses, you are permitted to use images from both these websites for commercial use without providing attribution. However, standalone use of the images is not permitted. I recommend making substantial edits to an image from these websites before using them in your projects. Such edits include but are not limited to (combining two images together to create a new image, using multiple editing techniques to significantly alter an image and adding title text to an image). Solely cropping or resizing the image does not count.
Bundling an unedited image together with a text based game should be allowed, but just to be on the safe side, I recommend modifying the picture substantially (as above) before using it in your project.
I also recommend performing a check on the image to ensure that it is not AI generated, as well as performing a reverse image search to ensure that the image is not copyrighted.
While attribution is not required, I recommend disclosing to Hosted Games that you had used images from these websites should you eventually submit a game for publishing.
Soooo true story, I was looking at an image I’d used in an itch game that was flagged as definitely NOT AI in pixabay, and there was just something bothering me about it. Ran an AI search on the original image and the darn thing was likely to be AI generated. Fortunately it was just a little itch game that hadn’t had much time put into the coverart and fairly easy to switch over for a different image (which I decided to be safe and do given the jam’s rules) but it was extremely annoying.
When I was looking for a replacement image a quite a few that were under the “not AI” category from multiple sites were actually looking likely to be AI (including paid images- I saw suspect images on pixabay, adobe and vecteezy and a couple I considered using were flagging as AI generated). I know the AI checkers are far from 100% accurate and can give different results, but there were some where it was pretty obvious that they were not 100% human drawn and at this point I don’t believe the sites are accurately classing their images. (Even ones you might have bought.)
If anyone is submitting coverart to HG, just a reminder to be extra careful and double check the images rather than relying on the sites to have them in the correct category and I’d attribute it even if not required just in case there are any concerns.
