Photographic permissions practices

University Communications works to support the mission of the university. We receive many requests from entities seeking permissions for other uses. In addition, many of our assets are decades old and the rights/permissions clearances required are unclear. For these two reasons, moving forward, we will provide only limited digital asset clearance support on behalf of Stanford for editorial use of owned materials that directly involve: (1) limited requests from media organizations acting in a newsgathering and reporting capacity; and (2) strategic priorities of university leadership. 

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of requests coupled with limited staff to respond to those requests, we are unable to support any other asset requests beyond what is enumerated above. The complexity of verifying, processing, and granting permissions has increased significantly, and there can often be multiple rights holders implicated in any single request. 

Requests related to schools and units are referred to those communication teams.

Digital assets means photos, videos, articles, or other media assets for which the university holds rights.

For  individuals looking for copyright-free images and videos, there are excellent resources such as Wikimedia Commons, which offers a large collection of media files that are either in the public domain or available under Creative Commons licenses. Additionally, government websites such as the U.S. Government Publishing Office and NASA provide many images that are in the public domain. 

Stanford images may not be used for commercial purposes. 

Published December 2025