So the next time you’re writing an incendiary expose on a well-loved historical figure or merely in need a bit of generic clip-art to illustrate a target being missed, just head to Google images, then click on ‘Search tools’.

This will bring down another sub-menu where you can filter your search for Usage Rights.

The default is ‘not filtered by licence’ as per usual, but this handy feature allows for ‘labelled for reuse’ filtering as well as various ‘commercial reuse’ options.

This filtering has actually been available for a few years, but it was buried deep within the advanced settings. Now that it’s so easy to find, you can rest assured that even if your words get you into hot water or create an unholy Twitter storm, at least the image you use won’t result in a slap-on-the-wrists.

Although any subsequent Photoshopping you do afterwards will be on your own head.

I should also point out that there are plenty of other useful resources out there for copyright free images. Flickr operates an excellent public domain catalogue called The Commons and Bing has been offering a licence search filter since last year.

If you know of any other quality resources, do please let us know in the comments below.

Here’s a recent post on Gmail hacks that may also make your life a little easier.