Like Carmen said, most of us dont have the time, money, or legal resources to pursue license infringement, however if we can get more folks to understand and actively participate in the licensing process, less companies and individuals are likely to get away with it.

Whaling and seal hunting were cool until large groups of people figured out that it wasn’t such a bright idea. The copyright laws of yesteryear do not work with internet content, as with every bit that you view, it is copied, regardless of license, on to your computer, its just the way the internet works. Information is shared no matter what, and creative commons is a small step in bringing to the public eye the idea that we need new ways to manage our rights in the digital age.

Its a shame that so many people who would gladly share their photos for the sort of use that Carmen is looking for, are instead ignorant to the fact that they are forbidding any such use by default.

This is happening to lots of industries. Those that make the buggies lobby the government, whine and cry about ‘fair,’ and the horseless carriage types just keep going faster.

Now that I’m done trolling, I, for one, didn’t know that those were the rules for PodCamp. Hell, I didn’t know there were any rules for PodCamp. Maybe that’s part of your problem.

As far as Flickr’s explanation of Creative Commons, I think it does a very good job, which is why I keep linking to it. I would never expect, nor want them to change the default, since full copyright is what is granted by law by default.

Carmen – as you mentioned, yes educating the flickr user about licensing option in a more prominent area would be helpful to a degree but ONLY if the definitions are detailed. I do feel the default should stay as All Rights Reserved. Flickr is usually very pro-photog friendly and I highly doubt they would change that default. and to your point about those not giving proper credit, of COURSE they aren’t respecting full copyright…. or much of anything in most situations…

Cara, I’m sorry to hear that proper credit seldom happens — I think that most legitimate bloggers and podcasters do give credit, but you have probably dealt with marketing douchebags. I’m curious though, whether the people who don’t give credit even respect full copyright.

No, I don’t think anyone deliberately broke the PodCamp rules, but I do think everyone should read the attendee guide to at least page 3. Justin & I worked hard on that

But for the 99% of people who own cameras, the photos they take are unlikely to be sold at a premium on the open market, and they’re probably not expecting to license their family portraits or photographic experiments on a daily basis. In their case, if they’re taking photos to document or explore their world, it makes sense that they’d want others to see it, and that desire is aided by CC licensing.

This does raise a great issue, though — which speaks back to our old intellectual property debate as well — namely: everyone needs a realistic understanding of the dividing line between amateur and professional. If you’re good enough to make a living by selling your work, go for it — but since we’re all our own worst (or, alternately, our most lenient) critics, it can be hard to tell when your skill level has crossed that line.

~ Joel

Off to change some of them now . . .