Introduction

If you are in the online business, YouTuber, social media influencer, blogger, website owner, beginner filmmaker, etc, you need some public domain videos to meet your versatile purposes. Sometimes, you are not skilled enough to make a new video, or sometimes you need ready-to-use videos as references to project your work, or sometimes, you need multiple videos to create a new one.

So, to meet any of these purposes, using public domain video without any restrictions and limitations is the most convenient one. Now, you must be wondering what is public domain video and how to find public domain video in the web world. In this article, you will get the highlights of public domain footage with the top 10 public domain video websites.

What is Public Domain Footage?

Some documentary videos regarding social awareness, nature-related issues, historical events, news, space-related facts, etc., are available on the internet for public awareness and acknowledgment. These videos are one of the best examples of public domain videos.

The videos that are meant for public use without any copyright protection or regional or limited use restriction are called public domain videos. So, you don't need any permission or authorization to use this public domain footage for your personal, professional, or commercial use, and you can utilize it for free. Certain factors determine the public domain video.

  • Any government-produced footage has been considered public domain videos.
  • If any video creator withdraws his or her ownership from the video for public interest or to make it accessible to everyone, this video will fall under public domain footage.
  • After 70 years of the death of any copyright holder, the video will be considered a public domain video.

What are The Best Public - Domain Video Websites?

Even though there is a lot of public domain footage available on the internet, you don't know how to find public domain videos or how to use free public domain videos for your specific purpose. So, to make your job easier and simpler, here you will get the most effective list of the top 10 public domain stock footage websites that let you download free public domain videos for later use.

1. The Public Domain Review

For research scholars, students, historians, artists, filmmakers, learners, or any creative enthusiast, this copyright-free public domain footage website is a treasure chest. In the vast collection of public domain stock, you can explore images, movies, audio, waste, etc.

Attractions

  • A new long essay has been uploaded every two weeks with the insights of scholars, artists, archivists, writers, etc.
  • The movies are divided into organized categories like politics, war, sport, animals & beasts, etc.
  • There are several categories of series, such as conjectures for experimenting with forms and methods, curator’s choice, etc.
  • Most of the films and footage from the 19th and 20th century

2. Pexels

Pexels

To talk about free public domain video websites, Pexels has the most extensive collection of photos and videos with multiple language support. If you are looking for public domain videos with cinematic appeal and a commercial approach, Pexels would be your all-time destination.

Attractions

  • These versatile filters, like orientation and size for video customization
  • Widest collection of versatile free public domain videos in HD quality
  • Get various categories of videos like birthday or business videos, black & white photography, etc
  • You can download the entire public domain footage on your Android & iOS devices
  • The duration of the public domain footage is not more than 30 seconds

3. Motion Elements

In the list of public domain stock footage websites, Motion Elements is a significant name with a versatile collection of public domain footage, including videos, music, templates, etc. While exploring 3D, Graphic templates, Lottie to Music, Sound effects, and Videos, you can get endless collections in its library to meet your specific requirements.

Attractions

  • You can use the footage for personal or commercial purposes like social media, online ads, podcasts, marketing, presentations, weddings etc.
  • It offers free and paid versions with unlimited downloading & an expiry option
  • You can customize your footage with free sound effects, after-effects, etc
  • There is a vast collection of 12 million plus videos that could be used for various projects
  • Enjoy daily uploads of trendy free footage
  • Smart & fast searching with AI-based audio-visual searching option

4. Vidsplay

vidsplay

To know how to find public domain videos in HD quality without any cost, Vidsplay gives you the widest library of downloadable & free public domain videos. Since this public domain video website is designed by a web developer and digital video cinematographer, here you will get cinematic clarity and appeal to every free video in multiple categories.

Here, you have to give credit to the free clips you use for your personal or commercial use at the end of the clips or in the video's description.

Attractions

  • Get weekly updates of free public domain footage
  • On this fully free website, you will get everything on its Home page
  • Unique library with more than 483 free footage in HD quality
  • Customize search with various filters like nature, background & texture, forest, winter, Trees, Clouds, etc
  • Explore two dedicated categories: Newest & Most Popular, depending on your choice

5. The National Screening Room

The National Screening Room is one of the leading public-domain video websites with a vast collection of downloadable moving images and movies. Here, you will get versatile public domain footage like mental health films, selections from the national film registry, etc. This website is a research hub for the US Congress and the US Copyright Office.

Attractions

  • Free public domain footage is available in 5MB Mp4 & ProRes 422/MOV/Quicktime Download format.
  • The library is updated regularly.
  • The audio-visual content contains a wide range of historical & cultural content for educational & learning purposes.
  • The historical documents reflect different beliefs, perspectives, and attitudes of different times

6. Prelinger Archive

In the Public domain stock footage list, the website Preplinged Archive is a very prominent option with its 60,000-plus ephemeral movie collection. Among them, you will get over 20,000 digitized titles and hundreds of free public domain footage of films produced by non-profit organizations, trade associations, US corporations, communities, etc.

Attractions

  • Movies are divided into various categories like amateur, educational, commercial, industrial, home movies, etc.
  • Get various versions of the same footage to select your desired video quality in HD.
  • It's a hub of historical home movies
  • Select the Tag Cloud option to see the entire website collection
  • Under the Achieve section, you will get multiple filters like media type, year, subject, collection, creator, language, etc

7. Pond5

Pond5 is one of the most appealing public domain video websites with versatile and creative free public domain video. Here, you will get a paid version of this website to explore exclusive footage forever. Experiment with your search with the extended options of backgrounds, animations, 4K, 360 VR, Slow Motion, Green Screen, Abstract, etc.

Attractions

  • It offers HD & 4K quality public domain videos in multiple categories
  • The library is stuffed with videos, music, 3D models, sound effects, After Effects, etc
  • The expert team professionally curates footage
  • Get over 40 Million videos shot by creative & talented filmmakers
  • Explore the widest range of filters, categories, and subcategories like VFX, Space, Nature, Sports, People & lifestyle, etc

8. Public Domain Footage

The Public Domain Footage website is overloaded with thousands of license-obligation-free public domain stock footages for your free use. On this website, you will get a long list of recent projects from which you can select clips for free. It requires a one-time payment to download any content and use it forever.

Attractions

  • You will get a well-organized menu with multiple categories of Archival Footage, Historic Newsreels, etc.
  • Under Archival Footage, you will get content on War, the Cold War, Children, Civil Rights, the Atomic Age etc
  • Under Historic Newsreels, you will get content related to entertainment, Cool creatures, Fashion, health & beauty, etc
  • You can place your request for specific footage with the “Custom Search” function

9. Vimeo

When it comes to how to find public domain video, Vimeo is one of the most popular and promising platforms to offer free public domain footage. To download the free public domain footage from this platform, you have to subscribe to the site.

Attractions

  • Get ready to use video templates for multiple purposes
  • Customize video clips with texts, music, images, set style, etc
  • You will get extensive categories, such as create, manage, grow, etc, that can be used to transform your free video footage
  • Get hundreds of video clips related to various fields such as product Ads, how-to-promo Ads, birthday, wedding footage, etc

10. NASA’s Video Gallery

NASA’s Video Gallery is one of the best options for getting advanced, informative, and high-quality public-domain video. Being a Government organization, NASA’s video is free to watch and download. These free public domain stock footage could be useful for academic research, news blogs, etc.

Attractions

  • Get the exclusive intergalactic multimedia collections
  • Enjoy free video footage under two categories: Newest Uploads & Trending & Popular
  • While clicking the search icon, you will get three options: Image, Videos, & Audio to customize your search
  • The Home-page is stuffed with various informative and fascinating videos

Bonus: Convert Public Domain Video to Any Format Using UniFab Video Converter Pro

unifab video converter pro

Once you download any of your desired public domain videos for later use, you want to make the downloaded public domain video compatible with various devices and platforms. If you like to share them with friends, social media platforms, any organization, etc., you need to convert your footage into all device-compatible formats. To do this, you should try the UniFab Video Converter Pro with its advanced lossless video conversion method.

Features

  • Explore lossless conversion of any Public domain video in its original quality.
  • Extensive video editing with cropping, cutting, adding effects, watermark etc
  • Trim the unwanted part of the video with this video trimmer
  • Get 1000 + audio-video file format support including Mp4, Mp3, MKV, FLAC, WAV etc
  • You can make the conversion between any format while maintaining the video's original quality
  • Get HD quality video in small file size with a smart file compression option
  • Convert files in all-device compatible format with ultimate customization like resolution, codec, frame rate, sample rate, etc
  • Enjoy 50X faster conversion with batch processing
  • Powerful editing toolkit with 20+ handy audio, video & image editing tools
  • You can unblur videos using multiple modes like Sharp, Unsharp, or Customize

How to use UniFab? 

Step 1

After launching the UniFab program on your system, you should add the public domain video that you would like to convert to the program.

unifab video converter

Step 2

Select the desired format to convert your video to and then go for further customization with frame rate, resolution, codec, etc.

convert video using unifab

Step 3

Select the “Start” option to initiate the conversion process.

 

FAQs

Is Public Domain Video Free?

If you ask is Public Domain Video free, the answer is “Yes”; all public domain footage is free to use. However, some websites charge you to download your desired Public Domain footage from their website for your personal, commercial, or professional use. So, in that case, you must use the StreamFab All-In-One downloader to download any public domain video from any free or paid website permanently.

Are YouTube Videos Public Domain?

Some YouTube videos fall under Creative Common License or Creative Common Public Domain Dedication. However, not all videos are free public domain videos. Instead, YouTube has a vast collection of copyrighted videos.

Conclusion

If you have no idea how to find public-domain videos, here is a list of the top 10 public-domain video websites. Depending on your choice and requirements, you should select public domain stock footage websites. From education, research work, and product promotion to social media posts and video blogging, you can get various websites to meet your specifications.