My friend Louis Kim once mentioned to someone that I was a photographer. I responded with, if by that you mean I take a lot of photos, then yes…I suppose I am.
I take a LOT of photos. I publish a lot of these to Flickr and license them very liberally under Creative Commons using the cc-by-sa-2.0. You can read the full description of the license, but here’s how this license works:
1. You can use this photo however you like. You can even make changes to the photo if you like and reuse it over and over. For free.
2. All I ask is that you attribute me as the photographer when you use it.
Pretty simple and obviously very liberal. In a few cases I have sold my photos for hundreds of dollars. Why? Just for the privilege of not attributing me. It’s been a couple years since I sold one though. Shucks.
I have noticed something though. There has been a huge increase in people using my photos and NOT attributing me. It’s annoying me. Here’s the latest example:
That’s a photo I took while attending the e-G8 conference last year in Paris. It was picked up by WikiCommons and they correctly attribute me and cite the license I’ve applied. However, this photo is one of over a dozen I’ve noticed being used without properly attributing me. Indeed, this very photo has been used several times without attribution.
Wikicommons makes it very easy to apply the correct license. Here’s how they do it.
I guess what I’m saying is: tsk, tsk Seth Fiegerman. You really should know better.
One final note, I read “10 Things You need To Know this Morning” every day. I very much enjoy and appreciate Seth’s work. I’m think it’s great that he appreciates mine too.
Aaron Fulkerson 