When you find a picture online that would be perfect for your project, it's hard to know whether you're allowed to use it. Follow this flow chart to know for sure and avoid getting yourself in trouble.

Creative Commons is an ideal way to share your creations with others and find art for personal projects. Some of us, though, don't always understand the rules. This chart helps you understand the key differences among licenses.

Google Images has offered the option to search for images available through Creative Commons and other free-to-reuse licences for a while, but you had to head to advanced search to find them. A revamp of image search means it's now easier to filter out pictures that can be reused or modified.

Dear Lifehacker, I'm trying to start my own blog but am finding it difficult to find images I can use. Any ideas? Thanks, Picture Imperfect

By default, you own every picture you take on Instagram, but once photos are on the service, they're kind of stuck there. If you want to licence your photos so anyone on the web can use them, I Am CC is a webapp that lets you give your photos a range of different Creative Commons licenses.

If you want a background image for your website (or even just your Twitter profile), a complex design won't cut it. Subtle Patterns is a handy collection of free background images that won't overwhelm your audience.

Windows: I use a lot of Creative Commons licensed images, which I usually find my images directly through Flickr's CC search or by using the CC Search webapp on the Creative Commons web site. CCFinder is a Windows program that adds a few neat tweaks to the image search process.

We're big fans of Creative Commons licensing, so the news that YouTube is now allowing users to upload their videos under a Creative Commons licence is welcome. If you're happy for your video content to be used and repurposed by others (with attribution), it's a great step forward.

It's a challenge to find exactly what you need among the mountains of Creative Commons works on the web. CC Search scans nine popular media providers to drill down and find the CC-licensed media you're looking for.

Although we'd previously given a nod to Incompotech for their free graph paper they have a vastly more interesting collection of royalty-free music. Check out the huge selection and add some quality tunes to your next presentation or video.

At Lifehacker, we're unabashed fans of Creative Commons, the licensing approach which makes it easier to share content. Australia is running a series of free workshops around the country across September, which is a great chance to learn more about the legal issues and how Creative Commons licences are being used.

Whether you're looking for crickets for the a little ambient pop in the background of your camping montage, or robotic squeaks and grinds for the main character in your space-based rock opera, The Freesound Project has sound effects for you.

eBay includes a catalogue facility where sellers can access pictures of items for their own use in listings (not much chop for selling Auntie Maude's unique dresser, but handy for common items). From September 4, any image that eBay Australia sellers upload to their listings can potentially end up in the catalogue.

If you've been having trouble finding free or Creative Common-licensed photos for use in your projects, Sprixi filters out the fluff to help you find the images you really want.

We've always been impressed with the detailed, step-by-step guides iFixit has posted for MacBooks, iPods and other devices. Now the site's put every bit of its content and future posts under a Creative Commons license, one that allows for free, non-commercial distribution and modification with attribution.

My favourite way to find photos (especially for publication in blog posts and use in presentations) saw a big upgrade today: Flickr's search results page is now a whole lot easier to browse.

Picasa Web Albums, Google's image sharing service, has added advanced options for searching, making it easier to find just the size and orientation of photo you want, as well as opening the doors to commercial use and remixes.

Nibbledish is an open-source cookbook for the wired world. If you've found other recipes sites to be overwhelmingly stuffed with nearly identical recipes and nondescript entries, you'll love the variety and photos at Nibbledish.

Lifehacker editors are, if nothing else, veterans at finding relevant, reusable images with permissive Creative Commons (CC) licensing on photo sharing site Flickr. So it's great to hear that Yahoo now offers advanced CC filtering for Flickr photos through its own, more powerful image search tool.