About a year ago, i made gave all of Flickr uploads a creative commons attribution licence. “What the hell is that?” i hear you ask. Here‘s exactly what it is: “This license lets others distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long as they credit you for the original creation”…
Now in reality i like to think i have a ‘don’t care’ licence. If you were to use any of my images in another design and not give me any recognition, i really wouldn’t care. I just like seeing where they’re being used, for personal satisfaction.
Yesterday, The Guardian (UK paper / website) published my ‘Raoul Moat – Game Over’ image in their technology section. You can find it here; http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/pda/2010/jul/15/facebook-david-cameron-raoul-moat
The article itself is interesting…. all about the Facebook / Government row over the Raoul Moat ‘legend’ page upon which people were openly supporting Moat. David Cameron suggested Facebook should close down the page, Facebook told him where to go.
Personally, i think Cameron should stay out of it. If Facebook users are stupid enough to support Moat and have their name attached to a page which praises his antics, let them. I’d imagine the vast majority of users ‘liking’ that page (which is no longer online) were just doing it for a laugh or without any malice or thought. You’ll have the odd ‘nut’ on any social network, in any community, in any walk of life… but that’s just life.
Anyway, i’m derailing the train here, i need to get back on topic… images, licences. I was directed to that article by a twitter friend who spotted it and recognized the image was mine. Had i not been on twitter, i may never have seen that article at all.
And that’s the beauty of being open, completely open online. Anyone can view & use your images on flickr, anyone can add you on twitter & send you a message… next thing you know your work is being seen by more people than you could ever imagine. It’s all about sharing and being open…
Do you own the license to the actual photograph of Raul Moat ?
no, but it had been thrown about so much online it ended up under all sorts of licences… the lines are very much blurred there i suppose..
Not really, if you don't own the right to the photo and you don't know what license it's released under, then you can't release a license. You don't have the permission, if you don't know what permission category if falls under, you can't even attribute the photographer.
The picture isn't from a public snap, and it's likely it was done by a photographer in a studio for something specific.