Attribution is a core condition in all six Creative Commons licences. A question which we are commonly asked is “How can I properly attribute a CC-licensed work when I use it?”
We explain the Attribution requirement in our factsheet (available here) and in our seminar presentations.
Increasingly, attribution of CC-licensed works is becoming easier through the availability of tools that automatically generate attribution information. One such example is ImageCodr, which generates the attribution information for CC-licensed images on Flickr, based on the information provided on the relevant Flickr page. All that is needed is to copy the URL of the Flickr image, paste it into ImageCodr and click “submit query”.
ImageCodr then generates the Flickr image with the relevant information attached. Copying the HTML code generated by ImageCodr into a website will provide a succinct Attribution statement: the CC licence icon and the Flickr username appear below the image.
For example, the image at the beginning of this post and the attribution below it were generated using ImageCodr.
Users of ImageCodr are also provided with a brief outline of the CC licence conditions applicable to the image.
To find CC-licensed Flickr images, you can browse the images on Flickr’s dedicated CC page, search for images via Flickr’s advanced search page, or use other web tools such as Flickr Storm (using the advanced search) and TinEye’s Multicolr Search Lab.
2013
Thank you for this.
As a Flickr user and Creative Commons evangelist, it bothers me when images are used with no more attribution than just “via Flickr.”