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Monday, July 21, 2008

Creative Commons Photo License Broken, twice in one day!

PodCamp Boston 3 Shirts - Front
PodCamp Boston 3 Shirts - Front by Financial Aid Podcast, on Flickr CC BY-NC-ND

Two sites reposted Christopher Penn's Podcamp Boston T-Shirt photo today and each made an error in following his Creative Commons license.

The above attribution how I think Christopher Penn's photo should be posted on other sites when shared. Christopher doesn't ask for Share Alike which asks to put the same license on the photo when used elsewhere, but there's no harm in adding it, if you like.

First up is the Geek Force Five Blog:

Geek Force Five uses CC BY-NC-ND without Attribution

NO ATTRIBUTION.

I sent Chris Clark at Geek Force Five an email and I'm sure he'll add it. I'm just posting here, to use this as an example of how many very good blogger, don't even realize the correct way to use flickr photos.

Update: Chris Clark fixed it right away. Just forgot to add the text on there when he posted. Thanks!

It's flickr's fault.

Next up is Adam Sell's Boston.com blog, Go To It:

Globe uses CC BY-NC-ND photo Commercially

USED COMMERCIALLY.

He needed to ask Christopher if it was ok to use the photo before using it on a site like Boston.com. Obviously commercial. If he already asked, great, but I tried to comment on the Globe's site and got this error after submitting the comment:

Boston.com Comments are Broken

The I hit the BACK button on my browser and got a Boston.com sign in screen:

Boston.com Requires Login

D'oh!

So I don't know if he asked or not.

It's flickr's fault.

Flickr's photo sharing tools do not make it easy to carry along the license info when you repost a flickr photo.

With Flickr's new SHARE THIS feature they are carrying on the YouTube method that if you click on a photo, you'll end up on the video's original page and be able to see the license info over there. That doesn't follow the SHARE ALIKE CREATIVE COMMONS license.

Many people don't get that and will copy the photo from the Geek Force Five and never even know to give Christopher Penn attribution, and might even give credit to Geek Force Five.

That wouldn't be right.

More info here:
New Feature Request: CC License on Flickr SHARE THIS code