What Do You Know About Creative Commons?

[Mike McDowell]

Hey crusaders -

I need your help explaining, in plain English, the copyright/licensing rules around photo-sharing websites like Flickr. This is a non-profit organization with chapters all over the nation, and they need a way to share photos with each other (for website, brochures, etc). They are REALLy worried about copyright rules. Should they be concerned? If not, how can I explain this to them in plain English?

[Wolfy]

Yeah, the documentation on CC licensing is pretty good. It's not super clear what commercial use means. If you use it for a blog for a ski resort is that commercial? If you use it for a personal blog it probably is non-commercial.

I think most people just want the credit and linkback. And I usually hot link it so they get the hit creds for the views.

-M

[Ryan Jerz]

It all depends. First off, Flickr uses Creative Commons Licensing, but the vast majority of users have no idea what that is. So Flickr defaults to all rights reserved. Each photo will have a key telling you what the rights are. If they run across a CC licensed photo, they can click the little key and get a specific explanation (in plain English) about those rights. I think it's a good policy to contact the photog and say that you would like to use their photo under the license they have (and abide by the license, obviously) and get their blessing. If they don't respond, you have the license, but if they do, it's a definitive one way or another. Just for the CYA, you might also PDF the page and save the licensing at that point in time, but that might not be necessary.

We've made awesome connections at NCOT telling photographers that we want to use their stuff online and give them credit. As a photographer, I haven't turned any non-profit down as long as they give me credit, which is how I license my photos. I think the bottom line is to be proactive to avoid any problems and keep documentation.