Can I Use Flickr Images on My Own Website?
Flickr is a free online photo library with over 5 billion images, according to CNN. Anyone can post an image that he owns on Flickr, and anyone with an Internet connection can view the images in the library. With the volume of images available on Flickr, it's important to understand the your usage rights. Often, you can use the images that you find on Flickr. However, the person who created the image owns the copyright, and you must respect his wishes when using his work.
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Benefits
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Having the right picture to attach to an online article can dramatically increase the article's appeal with the audience. However, if you're not a photographer, you may lack the ability to produce professional-quality photos yourself. This is where Flickr comes in. With a library of billions of photos, it's likely that you can find a picture of anything you like for your website. A great picture can increase the impact of your website's content, which may lead to the website earning more money.
Legal Issues
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Flickr doesn't own the copyrights for the photos in its library; the contributors do, and they're allowed to set the usage requirements for their work. Some photographers may not allow their photos to be used at all, while others may allow webmasters to pay for the usage rights or license their work under a Creative Commons license. Additionally, a photo containing a trademark or person's face may be subject to additional requirements such as a model release before you may legally use it for a commercial website.
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Creative Commons Images
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As of 2011, there are more than 152 million photos published on Flickr under Creative Commons licenses. There are several different types of Creative Commons licenses, and the least restrictive of these is the Attribution license. You may download a Creative Commons Attribution photo from Flickr and use it on any website -- commercial or non-commercial -- as long as you give credit to the photographer. Other license types are more restrictive. For example, the Noncommercial license prevents you from using an image in a commercial project, and the No Derivative Works license prevents you from modifying the original photograph. Study the photographer's license terms carefully before using a Creative Commons image on your website.
Licensed Images
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If you find a photo on Flickr that you want to use and the owner hasn't released it under a Creative Commons license, you may still be able to use the photo by licensing it through Flickr's partner, Getty Images. If you see a "Request to license" link on the right side of the page, click the link to have Getty Images contact the owner to arrange the license terms for you. The price depends on the size of the image. The benefit of licensing a Flickr image is that you know the image is completely legal to use; Getty Images only licenses the image to you upon verifying that the people in the image have signed model releases and that the image doesn't infringe on any trademarks. The drawback is that it can be quite costly to license many images.
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References
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- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images
