Comments on: Flickr’s Big Fail On Creative Common’s Attribution Guidelines

By: Robb Shecter

Robb Shecter — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 08:59:55 +0000

Yes yes yes!! I’ve gone through these EXACT SAME STEPS and been frustrated every time for the exact same reasons. Thanks for taking the time to spell it out.

The first case you describe (no attribution info spec’d) is by far the most common.

I’m frequently looking for CC photos I can use in the sites I build — it’s a win-win. I get unique works, and the creators get more exposure. It shouldn’t be hard to do the right thing.

By: Adrian

Adrian — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 07:26:54 +0000

Creative Commons says the Attribution license (which is on all CC photos): “You let others copy, distribute, display, and perform your copyrighted work — and derivative works based upon it — but only if they give credit the way you request.”
The usual way to do this is by adding the name of the photographer and a link to where the photo is from. The issue on Flickr is to decide if you use the user’s name or username which aren’t always the same though users sometimes speciy which to use on their profile page and where to linkback.

By: Michael Aulia

Michael Aulia — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:38:09 +0000

It is frustrating in some ways. I thought that linking back from the image to the Flickr page is enough. Even last time I thought if I searched for images that can be used for commercial purposes, you didn’t even need a link back.

So the question remains, is linking back to the photo flickr page enough or you really have to credit the photographer’s name on the posts with links etc?

By: Adrian

Adrian — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:17:26 +0000

Interesting article. We have our own way of doing it at Fotopedia through widgets which have the attribution, license and link issues dealt with. I'd be interested to know what you think about it: fotopedia

By: scott lewis

scott lewis — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:04:48 +0000

Great comment on the probs with Flickr. Like you I find it so frustrating when you want to comply with CC copyright, and a sophisticated provider like Flickr makes it hard to do. If you dig into the code for the Flickr photo pages, you come up with this fragment:


Uploaded on October 29, 2004 by The Rocketeer

Note the part of the A tag, which has the curious attribute: rel="dc:creator cc:attributionURL">. Digging around through some searches, it looks like this is, indeed, the attribution URL as specified by Creative Commons. (Though why is it a relative url?) So I guess you would use the person's Flickr name linked through this URL. Though as your case study suggests, this might not satisfy some individuals, I would think you would be legally covered to some extent. Obviously this applies more to parsing these pages automatically, but it is a hint as to what should be done manually as well. Thanks for the post.

By: jlbraaten

jlbraaten — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 03:54:30 +0000

All this Creative Commons stuff is confusing to me. I just went with the $1 images over at Fotolia.com. When in doubt, pay a dollar

By: miha

miha — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 23:33:12 +0000

Well, CC license for Mark’s photo makes it quite clear: If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and give the Original Author credit reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing by conveying the name (or pseudonym if applicable) of the Original Author if supplied; the title of the Work if supplied; and to the extent reasonably practicable, the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URI does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work. Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit.

By: Tyler Yip

Tyler Yip — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:52:44 +0000

Interesting viewpoint.

After reading your comments about the problems I had getting CrunchGear and TechCrunch to comply with my photo’s license and your comment about my own statement about proper photo credits, I have added a more explicit description of my expectations for a photo credit as required by the license I have applied to my photo.

By: Rob

Rob — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 19:27:04 +0000

“It’s like driving to work everyday and ignoring the posted speed limit because it doesn’t “work” for you.”

If you’re driving the speed limit, good for you, but … doesn’t the honking bother you?

By: mconnors

mconnors — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 21:57:02 +0000

You can use http://morguefile.com, we have the easiest to use free photo license and an advanced filtering/ sorting utilities.