Internet users who upload their own images, sounds and text are increasingly using the Creative Commons license. A Creative Commons license allows a publisher to indicate how and under what conditions some one else can make use of their content. For example, I can put some pictures on my blog and display a CC license that says:

Creative Commons Attribution

What this means is that some one else visiting my site can use my pictures on their own web site or some other project as long as they properly attribute me as the creator of the work.

If I had displayed a license that said

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial,

then the visitor can only use my images on non-profit projects and he or she will have to attribute me wherever they are using my images.

Resource: Go here for a full list of Creative Commons Licenses and their descriptions.

Example of Creative Commons usage: Images

Images are probably the most important media we all use in our projects and we are constantly looking for interesting images to help us add value to our presentations, papers and lecture notes.

Flickr.com is currently the most popular image hosting site and many Flickr users license their images under Creative Commons. Let me demonstrate how we we can:

1. Search for Creative Commons licensed images on Flickr; and
2. Cite or attribute the images when we use them in our projects.

Part 1. Finding Creative Commons Licensed images on Flickr

You can only use images from those Flickr members who have decided to offer their work under a Creative Commons license. The images can be used as long as you follow the conditions that the particular license spells out.

The easiest license to use is the Attribution license. Images licensed under Attribution can be used anywhere as long as you attribute the publisher. Do note however that if the image features people, you might not want to use it out of context (for example in a commercial that is endorsing a product). Such use may require you to get a model release from the people appearing in the picture.

Resource: Go here for Flickr images under Attribution license.

You will see a search facility on the page. Let’s say I want to find a picture for an article I am writing about food in the Kagoshima area in Japan. I will search using the keywords “Kagoshima Food”.

Flickr will show you all the images matching your keyword.

Click on the picture you like. In my case, I clicked on the second image. This will take me to the page containing that image:

Note the name of the publisher. This is shown on the right hand side and reads like this:

“Uploaded on September 29, 2005 by naotakem”

Keep a record of this publisher information. Also include the title of the image. “Hirame Sashimi”

To download the image, look for a button called “All Sizes” above the image.

Click on that button and Flickr will give you a choice of image sizes. Choose a size and click on the download link just above the picture.

Also, some Flickr members use a user name. You can click on the user name and go to a page that displays the profile of the user. Here you can find the full name of the user. Note down this name too. If the user has not published his/her full name, note down the user name.

In this case, the user’s full name is Naotake Murayama

Part 2: Using the image and properly crediting (attributing) it

If you are using it on a print document attribute it in the following format:

publisher name, photo title, date uploaded via Flickr, Creative Commons License

This attribution appears just below the picture, wherever you are using it.

For example the Kagoshima food picture I downloaded will be attributed as:

Naotake Murayama, “Hirame Sashimi” September 29, 2005 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

If you are using the image on a website, it is preferable to put the link to the original image. My citation will then look like:

Naotake Murayama, “Hirame Sashimi” September 29, 2005 via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution.

(via Jessica Coates, see comments below)

Other Creative Commons Media Sources

You can use this Creative Commons search facility to easily find music (from Owl), video (from Blip.tv), assorted media from SpinXpress, Flickr images and Google & Yahoo searches.

Conclusion

Educators need to respect the copyright of others. However, the Creative Commons license allows us to use images, video or audio created by others, as long as we respect the requested attribution indicated on the Creative Commons license.

Author

By Preetam Rai, technology trainer at Teaching and Learning Centre, Ngee Ann Polytechnic.

[Image at top of article: LuMaxArt Gold Guys With Creative Commons Symbol, via Wikipedia, 11Mar09]