Photographs and Memories

everystockphoto.com is a search engine for photos licensed under Creative Commons. everystockphoto.com currently indexes 271,323 photos. They "aim to be a community for designers, developers, photographers and other media publishers who want better, easier access to license-specific media on the web."

CC "adds value by providing a single integrated search, allowing users to bookmark their photos with private and public tags." They will be "offering advanced searching options, rating systems and other tools."

Creative Commons is a method of licensing creative works. You could say that Creative Commons competes with Copyrights as a method of protecting authors, artists, etc. while encouraging creative use of the protected works.

"Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach. We're a nonprofit organization. All of our tools are free."

Did I mention that you can use the photos for free - subject to the terms of the applicable Creative Commons licenses.

What did we learn today?

1. One web site gives you access to ¼ of a million photos
2. You can use those photos at no charge (as long as you comply with the photographer's terms)
3. There's more than one way to protect creators' rights and encourage use of the creations.
4. everystockphoto.com is easier to use than a Google Images search.

OK, we didn't learn #4 today. However, if you apply Lesson #1, then #4 will be serendipituous.