Online storage and image rights

ruffdog64

ruffdog64

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857
Name
Harvey
Edit My Images
Yes
I have a flickr account and have been led to believe that the owners of it can use my photos for commercial purposes , firstly is this true? and if it is are there any online sites where i have the rights? I freely admit at the moment my photos aren`t worth giving away let alone buying, but one day i might get a good `un, thanks Harvey :thumbs:
 
The Flickr terms of service (TOS) and copyright/intellectual property policy are both available at the bottom of every Flickr page, there's quite a bit of info in the FAQs as well.

How have you been led to believe the statement you've made? it might make it easier to comment on..

I've had a flick through the ToS and can't see anything that resembles what you've hinted at, although there are seperate terms for some individual Groups and you can choose to accept or not terms relating to the relationship Flickr has with Getty.
 
Thanks for taking time to reply tbh it was a friend who said this was the case, looks like I need to check things out.
This is more me looking to the future and maybe one day making some money out of my hobby, so far I've found almany( think that's the one)
 
ruffdog64 said:
I have a flickr account and have been led to believe that the owners of it can use my photos for commercial purposes , firstly is this true? and if it is are there any online sites where i have the rights? I freely admit at the moment my photos aren`t worth giving away let alone buying, but one day i might get a good `un, thanks Harvey :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Your friend is correct. This is copied directly from the Flickr T's & C's (They are part of the Yahoo Group)

"With respect to Content you elect to post for inclusion in publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups or that consists of photos or other graphics you elect to post to any other publicly accessible area of the Services, you grant Yahoo! a world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish such Content on the Services solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted, or, in the case of photos or graphics, solely for the purpose for which such photo or graphic was submitted to the Services. This licence exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Services and shall be terminated at the time you delete such Content from the Services."
 
Yahoo! Groups is a distinct and seperate service that Yahoo! Inc provide. The paragraph after that is more generic (but no better). Searching the Flickr Help group, there is reference to a completely different (and much better TOS for Flickr) but noone has provided a link.
 
Nick_1981 said:
Your friend is correct. This is copied directly from the Flickr T's & C's (They are part of the Yahoo Group)

"With respect to Content you elect to post for inclusion in publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups or that consists of photos or other graphics you elect to post to any other publicly accessible area of the Services, you grant Yahoo! a world-wide, royalty free and non-exclusive licence to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish such Content on the Services solely for the purpose of displaying, distributing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted, or, in the case of photos or graphics, solely for the purpose for which such photo or graphic was submitted to the Services. This licence exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Services and shall be terminated at the time you delete such Content from the Services."
Click to expand...

My understanding of this (and if I am wrong I would genuinely like to be corrected!) is that these are fairly standard and necessary terms and conditions.

Firstly, you are granting a licence (not copyright) to publish 'solely for the purpose for which such photo or graphic was submitted to the Services' - this does not include any commercial purposes (unless they are a stated purpose of the service which doesn't apply to Flickr) and is necessary for the site to exist at all - Flickr are effectively publishing your photo's whenever they serve them up to a visitors browser. You have to grant them a licence to do this or they couldn't do it without breaching copyright.

The other important point is that the licence you grant is royalty-free (they certainly don't want to pay you!), non-exclusive (so you are free to licence or use your photos anywhere else you want) and can be terminated by you at any time simply by deleting the photo from the service.

Whilst photos are stolen from Flickr all the time, I don't think you have to worry about Flickr themselves trying to grab copyright from you or them trying to make a profit directly from your images.

I should state again that this is how I understand it. I am not a legal person and would appreciate correction if I have got it wrong...
 
Thanks for the reply, where is a good place to put my photos for possible sales?
 
ruffdog64 said:
Thanks for the reply, where is a good place to put my photos for possible sales?
Click to expand...

Somewhere that people interested in the images you take might find them.. :thumbs:

It's difficult to say, I haven't a clue what sort of images you take and would like to sell.. or how you want to sell them - stock? prints? How you plan on marketing them - if you plan on doing any marketing, etc..

More info required.
 
Tbh it's a long term hope of mine to sell my images, my photos don't follow particular subject so Im thinking some kind of general stock website if such a site exists,Harvey
 
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