If you love them, let them go free

A bit of history: My first upload (well, under this alias ;-) to wikipedia/wikimedia was of a magpie moth caterpilla after being astounded that there was none to illustrate the wikipedia page (had to borrow a camera) ... been busy ever since. That's mainly why I look for id confirmations for my photos - to make them more useful (boy was that difficult before naturewatch :-(.

<soapbox>
I license all my images CC-BY-SA so that they can be used for any purpose, as long as you don't claim them as your work, and also that you make any derivative images similarly available.
Many people opt for non-commercial licensing (eg CC-BY-NC), I think this is a fairly standard reaction of most people: "I am happy to share my photos but if anyone is going to make money out of them, then I want a cut" ;-). In reality most reputable commercial publishers would seek explicit commercial licensing from you anyway, to protect their back (so they don't get bad publicity when they find that the freely licensed image they found on the web wasn't actually licensed that way by its owner). The less reputable ones will ignore licensing and good luck in your ability to sue them unless you're Di$ney etc, and can send in the swat team.

I see millions of photos out there on the internet "all rights reserved" or NC, ND - a bit like locks on doors, only keeps the honest people out. Seems such a waste :-(

My philosophy is that I have no intention of trying to make money out of them, and it is very very unlikely that anyone else will either. Might as well have the satisfaction of seeing them as widely used as possible. I find wikipedia such a great (though imperfect ;-) resource, it's one thing that I can contribute to make it better and they require "anyone can use them for anything" type licenses, the "CC-BY-SA" and "CC-BY" licensing options here make them usable on wikipedia etc.

If you love it, set it free :-)

</soapbox> ;-)

my original
(someones derivative) who would have thought?

Posted on Οκτώβριος 16, 2014 1106 ΠΜ by tony_wills tony_wills

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