Using images of disasters like Haiti

Of course everyone is shocked and saddened at natural disasters like the earthquake in Haiti this week. Many of want to use photos of the aftermath in various contexts – to encourage donations, encourage prayer, etc. But the fact that a heart-rending tragedy has taken place does not allow us to use copyrighted pictures. The fact that nobody is likely to object to you using them in church is not the point. You shouldn’t use them without permission. There are plenty of blogs which have taken images from news sites without permission, but that doesn’t mean you should. Blogs should always have attributions for picture sources, which enables you to investigate permissions. If there’s no attribution, you must assume you cannot use the picture, not that you can. Almost all news site photographs are copyright, many from Associated Press, Press Association and Reuters. They’re all very hot on copyright.

BUT, Flickr is a great source of pictures which are licensed for use under the Creative Commons scheme. Some, if not all, of the various United Nations organisations put photos on Flickr under a CC licence, which allows you to use their images for free subject to one condition: that you give an attribution of the source. If I have time I add the text (something like © Joe Bloggs; used under a Copyright Commons Licence) to the edge of the photo so it’s there for future use; if I’m in more of a rush I use a text box in Powerpoint or put a slide at the end stating the sources. But it must be there somewhere. There are two streams which will probably give you all you need and more for an event like this:

United Nations Development Programme’s photostream

United Nations Photo’s photostream

I use Flickr for finding Copyright Commons material a lot. Use the advanced search page and tick the ‘Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content ‘ box at the bottom of the page. Every now and again I also check with the photographer that they’re happy with my intended use of their picture – if it’s of Richard Dawkins, say, and I want to use it in an event where I’m going to be arguing against his ideas. Photographers probably have Dawkins pics because they’re fans, so it seems to me that even if they have CC-licensed their picture, it has more integrity to check that they’re OK with what I intend to do with it. Some have been, some haven’t. You don’t need to do this, since it is a public licence, but it’s good to.

Posted via email from Tony Watkins