You can make targeted searches on Flickr to find photos marked “Creative Commons”. The Creative Commons is an alternative to a normal copyright. The licenses seek a balance between the complete block between “all rights reserved” and the “totally open and free” of any copyright in the photos.
They allow you to keep track of the images and offer more options of how they can be used. The owner of the photo can change the type of license in each of them.
Using creative commons licenses on Flickr
By default all photos are posted with “All rights reserved”. You have the option to leave them like this or to license for public use under Creative Commons.
How to Change Licenses One Photo at a Time
- Click on your photo to open it;
- Below the date, click on the license currently applied;
- Select the type of license you want to apply it.
Changing Multiple Photo Licenses at Once
- Open your photo gallery on Flickr and go to Camera Roll;
- Select the photos you want to change;
- Click “Edit”;
- Select your new license in the “Copyright protection level” menu;
- Change and click “Save.”
Change the default license for new uploads
Your default license settings only apply to the new photos you submit.
- Click on your profile icon;
- Click “Settings“;
- Click the “Privacy and Permissions” tab;
- Find the “Default for new uploads” option;
- Click “Edit” next to “What license your content will have”;
- Select your new license and click “Set Default License”.
Types of Creative Commons licenses on Flickr
All rights reserved – the copyright owner reserves all rights under copyright law, such as making copies, distributing your work, performing your work, licensing or otherwise exploiting your work; no right is waived under it.
Public Domain Work
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
Dedication Public Domain (CC0)
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Assignment
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Share Attribution
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
NoDerivs Attribution
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
Non-Commercial Attribution
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
Assignment Usage-Non-Commercial-Sharing
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
Non-Commercial Attribution-NoDerivs