Animation is the display of a sequence of positions in order to create an illusion of motion. It was not that many years ago that if you entered the phrase "free animation" into a search engine, you may not have had many results returned. However, if you check the internet now, then you are likely to get thousands of pages offering free samples that can be used on websites.

Do free animations mean that no one gets credited with the work or that the person and/or company that developed it have agreed to basically give it away? Works granted as a copyright after January 1, 1978 are protected for the lifetime of the author or creator and for a period of 50 years after his or her death. What about these gif animations, cartoon animations, 2D animations and 3D animations that are found on the internet? Are they really free?

If you are like most people when you are surfing the web and you see something interesting, perhaps an animation that you would like to save or put on your own site, then you most likely just download it or right click and "save as." That might work for static images, but you can't right click and save Flash generated computer animations; they can't just be "taken." The sites that offer free animation Flash files will allow you to download but request that you link back to them or give them credit for whatever you use.

As soon as you write a story, draw a character, create any type of graphics computer animation, save a document using Word or record a song, you own copyright to it and are protected by law. What about computer animations or any other type of work that you have created for an employer or client? In that particular case, it is known as work for hire and at times you can claim the right to include the works for display in your portfolio, although you should check to see if they would have any specific objections to allowing that.

Not everyone has the creative ability to design their website to look like they imagine it and at times will "borrow" 3D animations, gif animations along with other graphics or images they see on the internet. The legal issue of free animation and graphics has been around since the first public sites started appearing around 1993. One individual may have obtained permission to use the works from the owner and put it on their site; however, if someone sees it on their site they cannot just use it, as they have to obtain permission from the original owner as well.