Open Media Review

Flickr User CC Licensing Survey

Alek Tarkowski from CC Poland is conducting a survey on how CC licenses are understood and used through the Flickr photo sharing service. Identify information is purely optional, so you can take the survey completely anonymously. Alex is using the data to develop a report and the Creative Commons folks are looking to add it to their ongoing case study.

I hope that it can also be used as a basis to help clarify Flickr’s support of CC licenses.

In the last year or so, there have been a couple of cases I have found distressing with CC at their core. CC was ultimately dismissed from the Virgin suit but the remarks of the plaintiff made it clear there is still quite a bit of confusion over licensing options at Flickr in general and the obligations of CC in particular for both licensers and licensees. Recently we’ve also had the Myxer suit which exposes some of the same issues as well as simply touching on concerns the CC folks have been working on for some time, like identifying works and uses in a more machine friendly fashion.

As the most popular license for open media, we are big fans of Creative Commons. Personally, I know there is much more work to be done on education folks on how best to use these licenses and what the effects their choice of license will have on practical situations involving their covered works. This survey seems like an excellent way to help share those concerns alongside some useful data on a service that does a brisk traffic in CC licensed material.