Nothing snazzes up a blog like some nice, juicy photos. If you’re not a particularly talented photographer, there’s always Flickr, the photo sharing site. However, just because these photos are up on the Web for all to see doesn’t mean you have the right to use them on your blog, especially if it’s a business blog (read: for commercial purposes.)
The best way to make sure that you’re following the wishes of the photographer who snapped the shot you like is to start at Creative Commons.
What is Creative Commons? To crib from them (which I believe is the goal here:)
Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists,
artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the
freedoms they want it to carry. You can use CC to change your copyright
terms from "All Rights Reserved" to "Some Rights Reserved."We’re a nonprofit organization. Everything we do — including the software we create — is free.
Sweet. So how can you determine quickly if there’s a nice photo you can use for "toothbrush", "love" or "jealousy"?
- Start at search.creativecommons.org.
- Type in your search term.
- Select "Search for works I can use for commercial purposes."
- Select (if you want to) "Search for works I can modify, adapt, or build upon."
- Click the flickr tab.
- Click "go."
Within the frame you’ll see the results from flickr that match these requirements. Flickr by default organizes results by "most relevant." I suggest changing this to "most interesting," as these results are more…interesting.
Once you find a photo that meets your needs click on it. Scroll down that page and in the right column you’ll find a link that reads: "some rights reserved." Click on this to find out if there are any strings. Mostly you’ll find that people want you to link back to them.
I generally download a copy of the photo and reupload it to TypePad, but you could create a link that goes right to the page on Flickr…your call.
Follow these rules and you’ll be one happy camper.
Photo credits: jonfeinstein, helena.40proof, respectively.
