CREATIVE COMMONS, free photos for bloggers.
What is a CREATIVE COMMONS LICENSE?!? Well, a CC license provides a standard way for content creators to grant someone else permission to use their work. This is used when an author wants to give people the right to share, use, or build upon a work that he created.
What does this mean for bloggers, journalists and webmasters? It means that they can use over 227,230,423 (according to Foter.com) of photos free of charge.
The common features that serves as a base are:
Every CC license allows you to:
• Copy the work
• Distribute the work
• Display it publicly
• Make digital public performance (e.g. webcasting)
Every CC license:
• Applies worldwide
• Lasts for the duration of the work’s copyright
• Is non-revocable
• Is not exclusive
The details of each of these licenses depend on its version and comprise a selection of four conditions:
• ATTRIBUTION (BY) - you may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only if they give the author or licensor the credits in the manner specified by these,
• NON-COMMERCIAL (NC) - you may copy, distribute, display and perform the work and make derivative works based on it only for non-commercial purposes,
• NON-DERIVATIVE WORKS (ND) - you may copy, distribute, display and perform only verbatim copies of the work, not derivative works based on it,
• SHARE ALIKE (SA) – you may distribute derivative works only under a license identical to the license that governs the original work.
But notice that a license cannot feature both yhe SA and ND options and that’s because the SA requirement applies only to derivative works.
Now lets see what exactly this licenses allows you to do:
ATTRIBUTION (CC BY) – distribute, remix, tweak and build upon the original work, even commercially, as long as you credit the original author.
ATTRIBUTION – SHAREALIKE (CC BY-SA) – remix, tweak and build upon the original work, even for commercial purposes, as long as you credit the original author and license your new creations under identical terms. This is often compared to “copyleft” free and open source software licenses (Wikipedia uses this kind of license).
ATTRIBUTION – NODERIVS (CC BY-ND) – redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to the original work.
ATTRIBUTION – NONCOMMERCIAL (CC BY-NC) – remix, tweak and build upon the original work non-commercially. Your work must be non-commercial and acknowledge the original work, but you don’t have to license your derivative works under the same terms.
ATTRIBUTION – NONCOMMERCIAL - SHAREALIKE (CC BY-NC) – remix, tweak and build upon the original work non-commercially, as long as you credit the original work and license your new creations under the identical terms.
ATTRIBUTION – NONCOMMERCIAL - NODERIVS (CC BY-NC) – this one only allows you to download the original work and share it with others as long as you credit the original work. You can’t change the original work in any way or use it commercially.
So, how exactly do you attribute the original author? The attribution must be given to the best of one’s ability using the information available:
AUTHOR – Name (or pseudonym) of the Author and link to author’s profile
TITLE OF THE WORK – Title of the work (if available) and link where original work is hosted
CC LICENSE TYPE – Creative Common License Name and link to the full license
COPYRIGHT NOTICES – this must be left intact when you credit or reproduce the work.
Yes…and where to place the attribution info? Well, that goes under the photo or at the end of the post, off course.
Thank you for reading, hope you didn’t hurt your eyes, and next time give credit :)
Recent Comments
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I just inquired as to "how to insert an image into my articles." I'd really like avoiding any and all legalities regarding copyrights. I just want a good image to highlight my subject. Do you guys have a good legal place to get free images or should I simply buy the image? Thanks for the info. Good article Andrei!
Try Foter, they have a plugin for word press too and you can select the type of license. Good luck :)
It's worth remembering that many Creative Commons (CC) resources, for example Flickr, are not reliable. You will often find that users have uploaded other people's photos to share and they aren't in fact the actual copyright holder and have no right to distribute the work under CC. It's also important to avoid using images of people or private property as it's highly unlikely that model and property releases have been signed and usually impossible to verify, leaving you wide open to claims for damages. Creative Commons is brilliant if you are able to discriminate when using it. If not, then stick to public domain images such as http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/ where the legal niceties have been dealt with for you. If you can't find what you're looking for in the public domain then simply purchase pictures from reputable stock libraries for a dollar or so. Rich.
Not at all. Take this as an example: http://www.flickr.com/photos/53558245@N02/ The user, daily sunny, has uploaded other photographers work and labelled them as available under Creative Commons. She is not the copyright holder and therefore cannot legally release them for other people to use under CC. You need to be able to discriminate when using CC or else use reputable sources.
Thanks for the microsoft office suggestion Rich! Really great to know. I've been really uncomfortable running into this creative commons license lately.
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Thanks, interesting information.