

Just be sure no attribution was provided by the user. You can also submit cases to Pixsy for photos you made available under Creative Commons. There are search engines designed exclusively to find CC images. With the Pixsy reverse image search tool, for example, you can still see when and where your images are being used. You can still add the CC license as EXIF data in Photoshop or Lightroom. Most of the major photo-sharing platforms allow you to license your work with a single click. They serve as a user-friendly version of the Legal Code layer - which would probably give you a headache if you read it!

The symbols and lettering are known as the “Commons Deed” or “human readable” layer. However, Creative Commons licenses are easy to use. Most photographers don’t know the first thing about writing legal terms of use. Do you want to allow commercial usage? Can users change the photos at all? There’s a Creative Commons licensing flowchart to guide you towards the best option! The Reasons For and Against Using Creative Commons For: Licensing is simple There are 7 regularly used Creative Commons licenses, all of which mix and match the various conditions. You can find a best practices guide to attribution on the official Creative Commons website. In case you’re unfamiliar with these licenses, this diagram will explain what you need to do to properly attribute an image under Creative Commons:Ī good rule of thumb is to use the acronym TASL. This stands for Title, Author, Source, License. Some licenses place other conditions, such as barring changes to the work or re-releasing it under more restrictive licenses. With the exception of CC0 (a public domain license), this always means giving credit to the creator. Anyone can use an image licensed under Creative Commons - so long as they follow certain conditions. With “All Rights Reserved”, you need unique permission from a photographer to feature their photo. Judge for yourself, and see if it’s a good fit for your photography.

That’s more than every other type of content combined!Īs Pixsy found out with our recent State of Image Theft 2016 survey, only 14% of photographers actually use the CC mark. We dug deeper to understand the reasons behind these numbers.īelow you can see how Creative Commons licensing works, plus its major benefits and drawbacks. Today, you can find over 391 million images that released under Creative Commons licenses.
