I recently read a wonderful post by Alan Levine – Cogdog on a picture that he had shared that ended up being used in an advertisement. I share almost all of my photos with the CC-BY-NC-SA license.
This breaks down to this:
- BY: credit must be given to the creator
- NC: Only noncommercial uses of the work are permitted
- SA: Adaptations must be shared under the same terms
Alan Levine talks about a write up where he shared his images as CC-0 (Public Domain Dedication: essentially making them free for anyone to use in any way). One of his favorite pictures of him and Cori ended up being used in an Instagram advertisement for OMGYES (which is focused on intimacy and pleasure).
He reached out to the company and received a reply from a real person. That person, Rob, sent along an apologetic email. He had the image removed from all ads. Here’s the thing, Rob didn’t have to do that. Alan had shared the image in a way that legally allowed Rob to use the image. (Rob also added a note about Alan’s photography being “stunning”). So there are good people out there. Alan has since changed the licensing of the photo to CC BY-NC-SA.
Since I’m participating in 52Frames this year, I got to thinking about licensing. Specifically, what is NC (noncommerical)? So I did a bit more digging. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a detailed explanation on Creative Commons. Specifically, does an ad count as “commercial”? (To me, it’s obviously a “Yes”, but I’ve been around enough to know that sometimes the law is different than my logic.). After a bit more research, it seems that NC is pretty broad and covers anything that “incorporates a financial transaction”. The Smithsonian has a nice explanation:
Non-commercial use encompasses a wide range of exciting possibilities—including artistic, educational, scholarly, and personal projects that will not be marketed, promoted, or sold. Examples include, but are not limited to, presentations, research, tattoos, sixth-grade science fair projects, tablet backgrounds, free and ad-free apps, GIFs, holiday centerpieces, Halloween costumes, decoupage, inspiration boards, and shower curtains.
Commercial use is any reproduction or purpose that is marketed, promoted, or sold and incorporates a financial transaction. Examples include, but are not limited to, merchandise, books for sale (including textbooks), apps that will be sold or have advertising, periodicals and journals with paid subscriptions, TV programs and commercial films, advertisements, websites that sell images, and cause-related marketing.
So, it seems that choosing the CC-BY-NC-SA license is generally going to be right for me. On some of the photos that I submit, I may keep an All Rights Reserved on, but I’m guessing that will be pretty few.
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