Last week Flickr pulled all the Creative Commons images from its Wall Art service after massive community backlash. Flickr initially launched the service in July, enabling you to order mounted prints and canvas of images in your photostream. In November, they also added a feature for purchasing licensed artist's work along those marked under Creative Commons.
Perhaps some shoppers were excited at the opportunity to purchase amazing images from the curated Flickr archives, however the artists weren’t so stoked to see Flickr making money from their Creative Commons images. While not technically out of bounds legally, Flickr was walking firmly in grey area. I have seen the posts from photographers in countless online groups asking if the message they received from Flickr, which requested adding their photos into the mix for licensing, were worthwhile. Usually ranges of responses were given, but now we see exactly the reasons for not jumping in. The message I found said, "If your photos are selected and sold in the marketplace, we will share 51% of the net sales with you through your PayPal account." Howbeit, there was no mention of Creative Commons images. They have released a blog post stating:
We hear and understand your concerns, and we always want to ensure that we’re acting within the spirit with which the community has contributed. Given the varied reactions, as a first step, we’ve decided to remove the pool of Creative Commons-licensed images from Flickr Wall Art, effective immediately. We’ll also be refunding all sales of Creative Commons-licensed images made to date through this service.
Subsequently, we’ll work closely with Creative Commons to come back with programs that align better with our community values.
Since the release of Creative Commons/Marketplace program, there has been a mass exodus from the Creative Commons license on the Flickr website. It seems shooters from all walks of photography are sick of big corporations taking advantage of those who wish to share their art with each other.
[via Flickr Blog]
