Flickr Updates Policy To Kill Copyright Trolls, Siding ‘Free Image’ Users

If you’re always on the lookout for free-to-use images, you’re regrettably opening yourself up to the tactics of “copyright trolls,” professionals who exploit loopholes in Creative Commons (CC) licenses to extort steep amounts of money from users. Due to their notorious traps—which we covered in an in-depth investigation late last year—they’re also often known as “copyleft” trolls.

From our research, we found that Flickr is unfortunately one of the biggest hotbeds in which these trolls operate because many of the photos on its platform are labeled under CC licenses—and outdated ones at that. Then, using image-tracking AI tools, they comb the web for so-called offenders.

The danger with “free-to-use” images

Most CC licenses have a flaw where if you don’t attribute an image in the exact way the copyright owner expects, it can result in the automatic termination of your right to use that asset.

An innocent typo may be tantamount to a violation, and ill-intending photographers have even sued users for citing different links from the URLs they wanted in the captions.

Only the latest version, CC 4.0, is relatively resilient against such unethical measures. It gives the “infringer” 30 days to fix an incorrect attribution. Following that, their license will be reinstated.

Why users are targeted on Flickr

The thing is Flickr hasn’t updated its supported CC licenses since the 2.0 version, which is nearly 20 years old,  leaving many vulnerable to litigious threats by copyright trolls. Pressed for comments, the company told DesignTAXI: “The change from Creative Commons 2.0 to Creative Commons 4.0 is something that we are currently looking into implementing and we are actively meeting with Creative Commons to discuss a strategy for moving to 4.0 licenses.”

Although this transition hasn’t been made, Flickr has done the next best thing to tackle copyright trolls, as Cory Doctorow of Pluralistic (via PetaPixel) has discovered. The photo-sharing bank has updated its Creative Commons community guidelines so that they’re closer to the 4.0 standard, in that copyright holders on Flickr will need to give “good-faith” users 30 days to amend a violation or risk being penalized.

A second chance

“When you choose to grant permission to your photos under any open license available on Flickr, we ask that you give the reuser a 30-day grace period to fix any possible mistake or misuse of your CC-licensed work with no penalty,” Flickr notes in the new guidelines.

“Failure to allow a good faith reuser the opportunity to correct errors is against the intent of the license and is not in line with the values of our community, and can result in your account being removed.”

Users who have been threatened by copyleft trolls can report them on Flickr, Doctorow suggests.

Not only is the fix a win for well-meaning users, but it also aligns with Creative Commons’ objective of empowering the “sharing and reuse of creativity and knowledge” without stressful legal tethers.

If you want to protect yourself against future run-ins with rampant copyright trolls, read our guide on image use safety. Artists and photographers who have had their work stolen can check here.

[via PetaPixel and Pluralistic, images via various sources]