Comments on: Picasa Web Albums goes CC

By: Gus

Gus — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:24:49 +0000

So, is it everyone's understanding that images posted on Picasa Web Albums can be used by anyone, for any purpose?

So, if I want to create a brochure for an organization that supports public schools, and I use an image of a school that I found in Picasa Web Albums, I will not be violating any copyrights, etc. by using the image, correct?

This is what I gather from Picasa Web Albums TOS...

By: Dave Q

Dave Q — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:56:28 +0000

It's about time.

This is good news.

By: health

health — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 14:00:26 +0000

Unfortunately, the Google Terms of Service also grant themselves a perpetual, royalty-free license to your content if you use Picasa Web Albums--

By: Sam Greenfield

Sam Greenfield — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:33:40 +0000

Hmm... The blogging software stripped out the URL from my post. The comparison of photo sharing sites TOS is here: http://samgreenfield.com/log/2008/08/google-terms-of-service-for-picasa.html

By: Sam Greenfield

Sam Greenfield — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:29:32 +0000

Unfortunately, the Google Terms of Service also grant themselves a perpetual, royalty-free license to your content if you use Picasa Web Albums--and not just to distribute your images. They TOS also specify that they can use your images to "promote" their site. This is unlike other photo publishing sites, like Flickr or MobileMe. I wrote a comparison of the TOS of various photo sharing services.

It would be nice if Google fixed their Terms of Service so that they did not grab rights to photos.

By: Crosbie Fitch

Crosbie Fitch — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:08:12 +0000

You're coming across the calamity of compulsory attribution, when CC should only (especially in the SA license) if anything, have required truthfulness in any attribution (even if implicit by omission, e.g. through context).

In other words, the moral right is to truth, and thus a protection against misattribution.

There should not be a compulsory attribution requirement.

This was learnt early on with regard to free software licenses.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:15:00 +0000

That is really cool news. What I want to know though is why neither Picasa or Flickr offer a public domain option? CC is totally great but given the difficulty in actually attributing the work (a bare minimum requirement for CC) after you've "remixed" it or translated it to another medium it would be nice to allow photographers to waive attribution explicitly.