Schmap Photos

I, along with a number of other bloggers, have been receiving Flickr mails asking us if some of our photos can be used in some new city guides from Schmap. It builds on the geotagging move in Flickr in some way, adding images to maps.

The email links through to an ‘approval’ approval page, where they explain how it will be used, how the photo will be accredited and asks you to agree to the T&Cs and confirms about the ‘non-commercial’ aspect of the CC licence that is bieng used and why they think they can use the images on a guide that will be free to users but supported by advertisers. It’s the second time this week that someone has asked to use an image; it’s good to see that people are using (or is that taking advantage of) the CC licence to get content without all of the legal and IP luggage that goes around with commissioning images. But I’m not someone who makes a living form photos, so does not really affect me. But I have just had to do some image editing for a website to follow such guidelines – candid ‘snapshots’ that could not be added to the site as permission was not obtained from everyone in the shot.