Here’s a nice view shot from the Coast Starlight back in November. If you click the photo, you’ll discover that it’s available for anyone to use for non-commercial purposes under this license.
I intentionally license all of the photos I upload to Flickr under this license so that bloggers and others are free to use my images on their blogs or other projects, provided that they give me credit, and don’t make money from my work. As the beneficiary of shared creations, including the template for this blog, WordPress plugins, and other open source projects, I see it as a way to be a good citizen. It’s also a way to receive some attention for my photography and other projects.
From time to time I’ve blogged others’ Flickr photos here, with full attribution and credit, including posting one of their images as a clickable image back to their photostream. To me, this is the only acceptable method of blogging others’ photography. I’m extremely anal about this — as a creator of user-generated content (that ubiquitous “you”), I’m willing to share but not give it away. It’s still mine and I should get credit.
Tonight I was clicking through feeds when I came across this post calling for feedback about blogging tools of the future. I’ve been a reader of David Krug’s since the PayPerPost brouhaha a couple of months back when he was blogging at the Blog Herald, which has been acquired and seen a complete turnover. David now blogs at 9o1am.com, where I remain an reader and occasional commenter.
The image in the right corner is one created by a Flickr friend of mine: StuckInCustoms aka Trey Ratcliff. I wrote a post about Trey last month congratulating him on the gallery show of his exquisite HDR photography. If you read the comments on the 9o1am post, you’ll see that there’s a difference of opinion about whether Trey should’ve been credited somewhere in the post for his work.
I don’t think David Krug meant to do anything other than use a stunning image to augment the point of his post. I am not accusing him of stealing or engaging in anything nefarious. However, it really does highlight the unfair use of fair use excuses. Trey’s work is on exhibit. It’s for sale. Trey has copyright restrictions on his photography on Flickr. Yet, it’s easy enough to figure out how to link a Flickr image and blog it. Trey could prohibit blogging of his images, but then he loses the attention that he might receive from someone blogging with attribution.
Here’s a simple set of rules to remember when using others’ work in a fair use situation: 1) Give them credit; 2) Give them credit; 3) Give them a link; and 4) Honor their license. If images didn’t enhance one’s blog they wouldn’t be used. Yet I see images all the time with no attribution on bloggers’ posts.
Here’s the thing: Most of us who create things want to share them. We just want the attention that comes with that — the CREDIT for being a creator of something beautiful, or funny, or cool, or useful.
It’s not always about money. Sure, the musicians and their labels forced all of us to bend to DRM, but I hate that as much as the next guy. What I hate more, though, is creating something and not getting recognition for it.
To blog a photo with credit from Flickr all one needs to do is add the Emorate photo comment tool to their Firefox toolbar. To blog that image with credit, go to the image you want, click the Emorate tool, choose the size, and you’ll be provided with the HTML to blog it as a hotlink back to the original image with a link to that user’s photostream beside it. One-click easy, attribution problems solved.
What do you think? Do you have other solutions? Post ‘em in the comments.
Update: I’ve retitled this post to reflect a more general topic and to remove the implication that there was a lack of respect happening. The image that I referred to originally has been removed and replaced with what appears to be a stock photo.
Technorati Tags: 9o1am, David Krug, Trey Ratcliff, Flickr, Creative Commons, copyright, fair use, blog, user-generated content, web 2.0
