One Photographer’s Creative Commons Ethic

Photographer Lan Bui wrote a great post about why he gives photos away on a Ritz cracker – a.k.a. a Creative Commons license. Lan, thanks for your generous creative ethic and great photography!

Why do I give my photos away for free? | Lan Bui:

In short, because I like to. Nothing more simple… ’sharing makes me feel good’. It is selfish, I know, but it is something I can selfishly do that helps others out.

Almost all of my photos can be shared, used, edited, remixed, reused, redistributed for almost any purpose without notifying me at all. Have at it!!!

Now lets get a little more into what I’m actually talking about. First FREE is not really free. What I am doing is offering everyone use of my photos without monetary compensation. So I can say FREE because there will be no monetary exchange.

Lets get even deeper. Anyone can use my photos as long as they attribute the work to me. So…. it isn’t really free; I ask for something back, a link or text credit. Many times I take care of the attribution myself by watermarking my photos, so in lot’s of cases we can still say I give away my photos for free.

Now, one layer deeper. Not only am I asking that if you use my photos you credit me… but you also must share the work you create under a similar license so others can collaborate, share and spread our combined work. So that is another restriction, but a liberating restriction forcing you to share.

Now I come to a very difficult part about offering my work for free to anyone that wants it. I am torn in my decision in this because there are great benefits either way. Do I allow commercial use of my work? Read more