 20060112 Creative Commons works!
 Creative Commons is an effort to enable copyright holders (like photographers) to grant some of their rights to the public. I place Creative Commons licenses on all photos I upload to Flickr so that anyone can use my work for free as long as they give me credit. A few months ago, Wikipedia used a few of my concert pictures for their Coldplay, Björk, and Radiohead pages. It is rewarding to see them trickle down into the hands of people who could really use them. Just recently, a stranger named Mark Webster from Calgary emailed me to say that he saw one of my photos in Dose Magazine only days after I put it up on Flickr. They used a photo of my friend Alison for an article about taking a vacation during the holiday season. Strange, huh? They never contacted me beforehand, which I guess is OK, but it would have been nice if they had. I wonder, does this happen often? What's going to become of staff photographers at small publications if Creative Commons really takes off? Mechanisms like Flickr and Creative Commons are enabling a new class of photographers and photography that will permeate all media! It would be neat if Flickr organized a royalty system so that people intending to use someone else's photo for a commercial purpose would be charged a fee, which would be shared with the photographer. Flickr would quickly become the largest photo agent in the world, and millions of digital-camera-toting kids would be running around shooting EVERYTHING just hoping to meet a company's random stock photo need, and in the process earn a little gas money. Think Flickr's photo database is comprehensive now? Imagine it then. 17
Comments:
Ben said... You have no rights management on your photos? 10:51 AM Jess Jams said... Hey! Look at the article above your photo! It's about Australia, and NSW even! Those riots were so lame. It was down south at the loser beaches in Sydney anyway. Nowhere near me. 11:10 AM said... Zach.. It was Calgary. Mark. 11:53 AM Zach said... Oops! Thanks again, Mark. 11:54 AM Chris said... it happened to me too! except the photo wasn't under a creative commons license, so the guy who found it on flickr called to ask permission to use it (henceforth, i have given all my photos a commons license). ironically, the public radio show he used it for is called "open source." 11:59 AM ian said... Great to see the system in action. "They never contacted me beforehand, which I guess is OK, but it would have been nice if they had." They should have, I think. At least a quick email. 7:37 PM said... You may want to put a the non-commerical clause into your CC license. An integrated royalty system would be cool on Flickr! 9:21 PM said... You may want to put a the non-commerical clause into your CC license. An integrated royalty system would be cool on Flickr! 9:21 PM Taylor said... I wouldn't mind the gas money. 10:11 PM Mareen said... I don't think that should happen. Firstly, because of the idea that flickr would be trashed with maybe-stock-worthy photos and secondly, like the music industry now, but worse, photographers who have to live off that, would lose any reason for existence. Overall, quality would be lowered for sure (not meaning your shot, which I really liked from the beginning). 3:07 AM Mareen said... I am talking about, like, price-dumping for loss of quality. 3:38 AM Becky said... so your photo did get in that magazine - congratulations, Zach! It really is a fantastic photo. 6:29 AM Zach said... Mareen, I disagree. First, what's the difference if Flickr is 'trashed' with more low quality pictures? I am sure most images on Flickr now aren't interesting to you, but you never see them because you selectively subscribe to contacts who are close to you or take photos that please you. I think natural selection applies ... the best photos will always raise to the top, and you won't see the bad photos unless you are searching exactly for them by tags. Secondly, the concept I am proposing will help all photographers financially. As it is now, Creative Commons is creating a huge database of free stock imagery that is flooding the market and devaluing the price of photography. If we a create premium for using Flickr images commercially, then the quality of everyday images will increase as people compete to have their photos purchased. I don't think the current system of paying only those photographers who call themselves professional makes sense. Instead, it should be a free for all where the best picture wins. 9:45 AM said... as alison's attorneys, we want to make certain that you did obtain the appropriate release from our client... ;) 12:57 PM Zach said... Of course not. We're close like that. 1:10 PM Mareen said... But I don't think flickr should make money this way. It has helped getting business contacts for me, but then we work out things ourselves at our own rates. In Germany, nothing can be cheap enough, agencies would rather pay less than have better quality. That is why I think, everything would go down the drain. 9:18 AM Moritz said... Zach, maybe either istockphoto.com or istockpro.com are right for you if you want to get paid if people use your photos. 5:24 AM Post a Comment |
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 Hi, I'm Zach. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and graduated from Wake Forest. After college, I moved to Manhattan to get serious about a company I ran with friends. We sold it to Barry Diller's InterActiveCorp in 2006. I just wrapped up with a project I co-founded called Vimeo and left CV to focus on being a twenty-five year old. I have another blog called Copy and Taste, where I post about learning to cook. I live in Brooklyn now.  Del.icio.us My Flickr Me on Flickr Last.fm Linked in MySpace Netflix History Vimeo  Amir Blumenfeld Chris Bodenner Mareen Fischinger Fort Wayne Observed Nick Gray Hype Machine Jake and Amir Jakob Lodwick Oh My Rockness Jonathan Marcus Youngna Park Megan Scheminske Eliot Shepard Shorpy Signal vs. Noise Alex Soth Stereogum Ricky Van Veen Khoi Vinh Eugene Wyatt   Postal Skype SMS (via AIM) |