As photographers, we have this not unnatural fear that people will simply steal our pictures and reuse them without giving credit, never mind pay for them. Enter the Creative Commons licence that allows free non-commercial use of online photos. Diane Smyth talks to several photographers who embrace Creative Commons to freely share their photos online.
Take Jonathan Worth, for example. He used to track down his images and send out nasty take-down notices. Now, he labels his photos as CC BY-NC- which requires that commercial users pay for a photo, and that he is always credited; non-commercial users are free to use it as they choose.
“It’s not a silver bullet but it was ground-breaking for me,” he says. “By making fans part of the process, they effectively do my publicity. I’m represented by Google now, and because I’m not paying for an agent I can sell for less and still make a profit.”
Read the article at: BJP.
