Creative Commons H-ll

Photo credit: Nancy Dowd

A few years ago I had been contacted by a photographer who was quite upset that I had used his photo in a slideshow without his permission. I had thought it had a CC license but when I went back to check it was clearly marked with full copyright protection.

To make a long and very scary story short, the person "let me off the hook" and I ended up taking the deck down. just to be safe, I pulled all of my presentations. It left a bad taste in my mouth for CC photos. The deck I took down had been featured by Slideshare and had an amazing traffic - ouch!

Immediately after that, if I really loved a photo and was going to use it in a high profile piece, I'd email the person directly. I seldom take the time to do that anymore and prefer to use my own photos or sites such as Microsoft.

In a post by Bobbi Newman last month she talked about her own experience with CC and shared that she too has begun to create her own library of photos to avoid a similar nightmare. Take the time to read her post but make sure you scroll down to read the comments. http://librarianbyday.net/2013/01/27/the-danger-of-using-creative-commons-flickr-photos-in-presentations/?goback=.gde_2700921_member_209399450

I love a few of the suggestions including the one from Theo Kuechel:

"There’s a really simple solution to this dilemma – Imagestamper http://s1.imagestamper.com/login.jsp

With one click on a toolbar button you can record the CC details including date, licence version and timestamps when you accessed the image on Flickr http://goo.gl/sOjqu."


Jonathon Gunson, Best Sellers Lab, offers a list of alternative sites and includes beautiful examples of the types of photos you can use here.  

Here's his list in abbreviated form:
1. Stock.xchnge
2. Dreamstime Free
3. Microsoft Image Gallery
4. Kozzi Free Photo Library
5.MorgueFile Free Photos
6.Free Range Stock
7.RGB Free Stock Photos

Kathy shares list of free / cheap photos at Libraries are Essential. This post listing resources for marketers is a good one to bookmark.
http://www.librariesareessential.com/library-marketing-resources/resources/

Would love to share any other sites people are using.