A Creative Commons Example: I've had a picture published!!!

I use flickr to publish my photos so that I can use them on the blog, but also so friends and family can see them. Photography is a hobby which I enjoy and could really get into, but I have decided to restrict myself for now.

My standard setting for flickr copyright is Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial. This one happens to be covered by version 2.0. I’m quite relaxed about people using my pictures, but I don’t want them making lots of money out of me (as if that was possible).

A few weeks ago I was contacted by someone putting together a free magazine that gets distributed at a number of regional airports in the UK. They liked one of the pictures we posted from our skiing holiday in Bansko, Bulgaria and wanted to use it in a feature.

Even though the magazine is free, it’s still commercial, so they were seeking permission in lines with the copyright agreement.

I gave permission asking that the “attribution” still stood and for a copy of the magazine in return.

Last week two copies of the magazine arrived with my photo in them and my name by the photo .

It’s a surprisingly good feeling to know you are a published photographer – even if it is just in a free magazine.

Creative Commons worked. They had access to the file, they could have just used it without asking, but they didn’t. Others may have used pictures without asking and without attribution but the fact that someone went through the process of shows that it can work.