CCFinder: A desktop application to easily search Images with Creative Commons License

If you want to share any image or video without the risk of infringing copyright, you should definitely use Creative Commons Search (CC Search).

According to them their goal is

...give everyone from individual creators to large companies and institutions a simple, standardized way to keep their copyright while allowing certain uses of their work — a “some rights reserved” approach to copyright — which makes their creative, educational, and scientific content instantly more compatible with the full potential of the internet.

CC Search is not a search engine "but rather offers convenient access to search services provided by other independent organizations".

German company Abelssoft has taken the initiative to integrate CC Search in a desktop application through their tool CCFinder to find images with Creative Commons License.

Features

Small installer, digitally signed by Abelssoft - Ascora GmbH.
Clean installation. By default creates a desktop icon.
System Requirements: CCFinder runs on any OS XP or Higher, both 32 and 64 bit with .Net Framework 4 installed. If you have not installed it previously the installation will help you to automatically download and install Net Framework 4.
The software is free, but you have to register it before using. Enter your First and Last Name, Email Address and click on "Get free unlock code now > >". If you have active internet connection you will immediately see a successful message and also will find the "Unlock code" box automatically filled with a valid code. You will also receive the unlock code in the email address provided.
Note: The email address provided will be automatically subscribed to Abelssoft Newletter. This isn't mentioned in the registration dialogue and also not in the product website. Anyway Abelssoft do not spam you with a number of emails but will send you mail on new product release or version update of your registered product. You can of course unsubscribe their newsletter following links in the emails.
User interface is friendly and easy to navigate.
You will be able to find and download pictures with a creative commons license from Flickr based on your search terms. Define how you want to use the picture (commercially, if you want to change it, etc.) and only find pictures with appropriate licenses.

You will be able to single click on each image to select or deselect it and double click on it to open "detail browser" where you will be able to view the proper licenses of the picture. The licenses are shown as symbols, hovering mouse on them you can see the license information. Details on the licenses can be found in the "Help" window or in Creative Common Website.

"Detail browser" shows size of the image in pixels.
In the "detail browser" you will be able to add "Sepia Filter" to your image. Other Filters (Contrast Filter and Grayscale Filter) are available in the Pro version.
In the "detail browser" you will also be able to save 'document of proof' PDF, containing the download time, the picture, a link to the webversion and the connected license information. But this feature is also restricted for the pro version.
In the "detail browser" and in the main search window you are given options to download, visit website and make the image as desktop wallpaper.
You can change some settings in CCFinder.

As is seen in the settings, CCFinder is set to update automatically.
It is multilingual, currently support six languages but you can easily translate the application with inbuilt AbFlexTrans Editor after clicking on "Language missing?" option in settings.

Drawbacks

CCFinder searches only images and not videos and Music.
It uses only flickr Search engine and not other like Google Images, Fotopedia, Open clip Art Library, WikiMedia Commons and Europeana which are originally supported in CC Search.

Download

CCFinder is completely free but Abelssoft asks you to pay a small amount $10 as a thank you tip and you will get pro features (as mentioned already) in return.

CCFinder can be download from the following link (Version 1.1)

http://www.abelssoft.de/ccfinder.exe [4326 Kb]