I’ve been a supporter of Creative Commons since I started blogging way back in 2003. Now that I am making photographs for a living, I’m spending a lot more time thinking about the implications of Creative Commons, and how that affects my career as a photographer. Dan Heller has a great written a great article called Creative Commons and Photography. His take? Creative Commons, while good for some media and implementations, is no good for photography.
Photographs only take 1/250 of a second to make, and they can be made available online instantly. There are billions upon billions of them online, with millions being added daily. Monitoring and enforcement of CC licensing for photos is unrealistic, unmanageable, and highly prone to both non-compliance by licensees, and to fraudulent attributions by others. This, in turn, degrades the integrity and reliability of the CC system, thereby compromising confidence in it.
I would like to note that even though the actual act of pressing the shutter takes as little as 1/250 of a second, the act of making a professional photograph can take much longer (although many great photos were made just that quickly). His points are valid though, and I like his take on the “confidence” of creative commons, and how adding creative commons licenses to photography is not only bad for photographers who make a living from selling the usage rights to photos, but also to Creative Commons itself. It’s an interesting read.