Thread

So lately, Ive been looking at the Creative Commons license. Especially, because I am hoping to use some photos in flickr under the CC license. However, even with this license, things are a bit unclear.

First off, the attribution part. Flickr says:

Attribution means:
You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work - and derivative works based upon it - but only if they give you credit.

The CC website says:

Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work).

So if I decide to use a CC attribution image on a blog entry I would have to credit the owner of the image. Which is fine. But what happens if I do 15-20 blog topics a day with different images containing the CC attribution licenses. Wouldn’t it be overkill to email 20 authors that I will be using their image and wait for their response? Sure I can provide a email template and manually type their email address’.

Which leaves me with a few awkward scenarios:
- If they dont reply (due to out of office, email caught in spam filter, etc), does that mean I can not use this image?
- A week from now, I find another image from the same owner. I send the template email again, but for another image. And the next week I do the same thing. Wouldnt this just annoy the owner of the image? I know I would feel annoyed if I saw several emails requesting how I should credit each image.
- These are just a few that I could think of…

Theoretically, what if half of the image owners comes back and says “Just make sure you credit my name in font-size 54” or “Credit my name on the footer of your website”.

I think the attribution license should just be, not in these words: “As long as you credit the owner of the image”. Period! Which is Flickr short definition for this type of license.

Second, what constitutes a non-commercial license? What exactly is commercial? What if I am profiting indirectly? Does that go against non-commercial?

For example:
If I have a blog that has adverts on the site, obviously, I am making some money. But not because of the image that belongs to somebody else.

The CC non-commercial explanation is still in draft form, as you can see here:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/DiscussionDraftNonCommercial_Guidelines

In conclusion, if I grab a CC non-commercial image and post it on my site that has adverts, affiliate links, etc, am I violating the use of this image?

But what happens if I do 15-20 blog topics a day with different images containing the CC attribution licenses. Wouldn’t it be overkill to email 20 authors that I will be using their image and wait for their response? Sure I can provide a email template and manually type their email address’.

No no, the point is you don’t have to ask, long as you play by the rules (ie give credit). You’re welcome to take the image and use it without asking (although a polite email letting them know that you did never hurt anyway). “Photo by Foo” or something similar will generally suffice.

I think the attribution license should just be, not in these words: “As long as you credit the owner of the image”.

It is, basically. I suggest you go to the horse’s mouth for a few examples.

Good list of examples there. I think that clarifies the attribution bit. Its just that the definition at the CC website says ‘Must’, i.e. “Attribution. You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor”.

However, the example states this otherwise.

Now onto the noncommercial bit. The example says:

Noncommercial. You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your work — and derivative works based upon it — but for noncommercial purposes only

Examples: Gus publishes his photograph on his website with a Noncommercial license. Camille prints Gus’ photograph. Camille is not allowed to sell the print photograph without Gus’s permission.

So if I publish the photo on my website (which contain advertisements) but dont sell it in any form, is this valid use?

This is obviously a grey area. Generally, if your intention (!) is to make more money then help with offsetting the cost, I’d consider it commercial. Not all cases are perfectly clear cut, of course.