How to Legally Use Images from Flickr on your Sites

September 3rd, 2008 | 28 comments

flickr image rights Several weeks ago I wrote a blog post and used an image I had found on Flickr.com. The guy who took the pic replied to the blog comment letting me know that it was his work and I didn’t have the right to use it in my blog post. I was ignorant in assuming that I was right and he was wrong, so I told him he needed read and understand the TOS of Flickr before submitting photos lol

Then I, myself, went to flickr and read their TOS only to find out that I was the dumb ass and he was absolutely right!

I used that image because I had heard that images on Flickr were all licensed under a Creative Commons license. I took the word of someone and didn’t do any further investigation. Well, I was only partly right. Flickr offers it’s users the option to fully copyright their images, or assign one of several creative commons licenses to their images.

In other words, some images are fine to use, as long as you provide a link to the Flickr profile of the person who submitted the image, and others aren’t ok to use at all.

So, in order to find images that you are legally allowed to use you need to use the advanced search function. Toward the bottom you’ll see an option to “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content”

Flickr Advanced Search

Be sure to have “Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content” checked and if you’re just using these images within blog posts and not in products, which you sell, you’ll be able to use the images that Flickr displays for your search query in your blog/site pages.

Just be sure to insert a link to the persons Flickr profile who published the picture. There’s nothing saying you can’t insert a rel=”nofollow” attribute into that link.

That’s it. You now have loads of nice looking images to give your blog posts and site pages some much needed visual aids and you’re doing it within the law.

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28 comments

Rich Hill (4 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 12:01 pm

Hey Josh,

Great info, I know, that’s redundant.

I did read the instructions on flickr and have only been using the =CC images on several sites.

Then guess what? I found about a dozen that I would like to use that were fully copyrighted. So I wrote a polite note to the photographer giving kudos on their talent asked if it would be possible to obtain permission to use the image.

Each and every one of them responded positively, asked for credit and a link, and thanked me for asking.

Incredible!

I think that these talented people just get tired of being ripped off and a simple request will most likely be successful.

Rich Hill
Zhu (2 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 1:41 pm

I copyrighted a bunch of my pictures on Flickr just because I was tired of seeing them used without permission and without any credit given.

Now, if someone asks me to use a picture, I always agree. It’s just more polite to ask or at least respect the TOS, which is not done enough…
Martin Paul (3 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 4:56 pm

Hi Josh
another option is to use the search engine http://www.everystockphoto.com which does a search for all Creative Commons and public access images. I have found images that way, and put an attribution comment in. The comments above make me wonder if I should also contact the owner. Preferably not, because the whole idea of licence is “giving permission” without case-by case negotiation. The licence is …ude it if you attribute (acknowledge) the owner.
David Freitag the computer doc (7 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:09 pm

Can you use the creative commons stuff without any attribution at all or do you have to publicize the source of the image?

What about Wikipedia images?
High CTR Adsense Templates (1 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:13 pm

Thats great to know, i had heard the same thing about flickr photos. Its funny how small the internet can seem sometimes!
Tom Stine | Life Coach (1 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Hi Josh,

Use the PhotoDropper plugin for Wordpress. It only searches CC images, and you search from within the wordpress write screen. It also puts the code directly into your post. I love it and use it on every post.
Chuck (65 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:16 pm

I’m a stickler for uniqueness. It’s the same reason that I would never use “completely free” music for anything I cared about….as I’m just as likely to see it pop up in a porn movie soundtrack or some other place I wouldn’t want to be associated with (http://musicyoucanuse.com).

So, I prefer to pay a buck an image and get stuff from http://stockxpert.com/ instead. It significantly decreases the chance of duplication in a post on the same topic on someone else’s blog (since most people are total beggars and cheapskates ).

However, in defense of your point, Flickr is an INCREDIBLY deep pool of images…and growing every day. That significantly reduces the chance of duplication.

And I completely agree with your first point…about the importance of pictures. I forget which of the BoingBoing folks mentioned that at some point in a book or a blog post a couple years back, and it was the first time I’d stopped to consider it. It definitely heightens the visual interest factor. And that matters a lot on a busy blog like mine…where I’m lucky if I make time to post every couple months. LOL…
Website Promotion (1 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:19 pm

Josh

I like your advice about “not automatically taking other people’s suggestions as gospel”.

All too often people hear something from someone and they act on it without due dilligence.

Another problem is “interpretation”. The original person may have acted in good faith and be spot on. But without checking the fine print you cannot be sure you’re making correct use of that info.

I personally don’t spend too much of my valuable time messing about with other people’s images, permissions, emails, links to their profiles, etc.

I simply use iStockPhotos.com … the images are very cheap and they cover pretty much every subject imaginable. Time is a precious thing you can never get back.

Thanks for another great post.
Sami
Neil (26 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:24 pm

Josh

This is so cool. I had been wondering (among a million other things) where I could get a source of quality images for my blogs etc. (I’m a bit behind the times with the old internet thing so I haven’t even ever looked at flickr!).

It’s easy to get distracted though. I was looking for some images from “Mexico”, then refined that to “Mexico beach”, then “bikini” …….. it was a few minutes before I got back on track

Many thanks for this great piece of info.

Neil
Arun Pal Singh (2 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Wikipedia is another source of creative commons and public domain images. When you click a photo on Wiki page, it leads to higher resolution version of the same image. Scroll down and you would find rights attached to the image
Mike Collins (11 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:36 pm

Wordpress users can also use the PhotoDropper plugin. Once its installed you can search Flickr by keyword right from your WP dashboard and drop the photo right into your post. It even adds a credit to the photo with a link to the Flickr account of the person who took the photo. I just started using it on my blog and its a nice timesaver.
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.com (9 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 5:38 pm

You had me worried about the images I’ve used! But rightfully so.

I’ve been very pleased with http://www.sxc.hu/. It has a huge collection but no search function the way Flickr has so you’re left with viewing the usage policy on whatever image you choose and make a decision then.
Lexi
3rd September, 2008 at 6:33 pm

Even though I use pictures with creative commons attribution license, I still do leave a message for the photographer in Flickr with a link to my blog page. I think they appreciate knowing where their pictures have been used.

Thanks to everybody’s comments with suggestions for other sources of images and the wp plugin - cool!
Jordan McClements (11 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 8:45 pm

Good info.

Good images really improve the look of a blog.

At which point I would like to say that I have well over a thousand images available to use by bloggers.
Ash Chuan (1 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 10:00 pm

Thanks for the tip. I dont use a lot of images on my blog but would like to. But I have always been aware of copyright issues and I am careful when using other peoples images without their consent. Now I know how to use Flickr images legally.
Free Website Graphics (2 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 11:15 pm

Thanks Josh, I never really ventured into Flickr simply because I wasn’t sure about the rules. Glad I took a look at your post.

I noticed someone mentioned a wordpress plugin call photodropper…..I wonder how that works and if it violates any of the cc or copyright rules?

I use a lot of public domain images, if an image is in the public domain then you are free to use it for pretty much anything. Almost all the images on .gov sites are in the public domain…you must check to confirm though.

Here’s a website with a bunch of public domain image resources http://publicdomainimages.wordpress.com/

Thanks….

Scott Parat
Lightening (1 comments.)
3rd September, 2008 at 11:26 pm

I use Zemanta to find my images for me. It gives me a list of options based on what I’m writing about and then includes the appropriate link with the image. It’s so easy and has increased the number of images I use with my posts.
Lisa Marie Mary (1 comments.)
4th September, 2008 at 1:26 am

Thanks so much for this post! I get so confused on licensing and rights stuff. I especially liked your tip on the search feature - that will save a lot of time!

Cool tips in the comments, too! Thanks, everybody!

[Aside: Josh, your inspirational quote from Randy Pausch is by far, my favorite part of his last lecture. Just the other day, when frustrated, I was repeating to myself, "brick walls....brick walls.....brick walls...." Great idea to add it on your blog - think I might do the same, but, in a totally different way - just to keep it in my head as much as possible!]
Josemi MakeMoneyOnline
4th September, 2008 at 2:36 am

Josh - Thanks for another great tip. I’ve started blogging now and I always try to put an image related to my topic.

I use clipart but many people I know can’t afford a membership so now I have a good tip to pass on to them.

Thanks

Jose
Adriaan Lee (1 comments.)
4th September, 2008 at 2:49 am

Thank you Josh. It’s a really useful post because, like you were, I have also assumed those photos are in the public domain.
Tony Murphy (2 comments.)
4th September, 2008 at 3:37 pm

I’m with chuck who prefers more unique content. I usually pay a few bucks, err pounds for images and sometimes I use my own. However I think that most people don’t actually use services such as flickr so the chances of flickr content being unique are probably quiet good
Tony
Gary (4 comments.)
9th September, 2008 at 12:45 pm

Hi Josh, Thanks for the info. I am getting ready to build some adsense websites so if I use pictures that are not unique will it matter as far as page rank?

What about templates, should I use a unique template for each website as well in order to get higher page rank?

I’ll have unique content as far information on the website and the articles that I write.
Sid Software (2 comments.)
11th September, 2008 at 9:22 am

I actually figured this out the first time I went hunting for content on Flicker.

I would say Flicker is my number 1 source for quality pictures. My number 2 is Photobucket. So if you don’t find what you are looking for on Flicker try that.
Instant Article Submission
15th September, 2008 at 9:25 am

Josh,

Thanks for great info on flickr images. Yes, i too faced a similar problem as i was not really aware of the licenses. So now i know that next time i get an image i get only Creative Commons-licensed content using that advanced search function.

thanks again
ebay auction tool (1 comments.)
15th September, 2008 at 12:22 pm

Thanks a lot for the great information. I have seen people do this the “bad” way. I would rather do it the legal way so things work smoothly. Keep up the great work with this blog.
Stephen Cronin (34 comments.)
7th October, 2008 at 11:50 pm

Hi Josh,

Yeah, I use Flickr images a lot on one of my blogs. I go ultra conservative and only use the ones that are for commercial use, just in case they consider running ads as being a commercial site.

There’s been a lot of debate about that point (what qualifies as commercial usage) - some people thinks it means that you make money directly from the image, other think it means that you use it on a site that makes money from any avenue (eg Adsense), even if the image doesn’t directly contribute to the income. Creative Commons is clear enough in this respect…
Internet Business For Absolute beginners (1 comments.)
2nd November, 2008 at 2:51 pm

I wanted to use quality images for my blog posts. I googled; how to use flickr images legally and found your post on first page. I followed the link to this wonderful set of quality information. Thanks for the great post.
Anne
11th November, 2008 at 8:28 am

You don’t have to limit yourself to flickr either. There are almost as many images on the Wikimedia Commons site.