Help: Photos on your posts

photo by gioischia


Hello everyone,

I finally figured out what wasn't working with some of the images you chose today. And it all comes down to something I was going to discuss with you later on: COPYRIGHT! One reason I had you use Flickr and not something like Google Images was to avoid problems with copyright, i.e. I didn't want you using an image protected by copyright. That's why I had you link rather than insert the picture in your blog post. However, Flickr seems to have some pretty strong rules about copyright, so we'll respect them.

Several years ago a Law professor at Stanford University (now at Harvard University), Lawrence Lessing, decided there needed to some type of author protection that was less restrictive than copyright. In other words, if something is covered by copyright you basically can't do ANYTHING with it whereas Lessig thought author's (of books, photographs, art, music, etc.) should have the right to share their works with others and allow others to use their works. This led to the creation of Creative Commons Licenses or so-called "copyleft" (playing on "copyright"). With this new form of protection an author can decide WHAT others can do with their works.

Flickr adopted Creative Commons Licenses right from the start. People who upload photos to Flickr can choose to use one of these licenses in order to truly share their photos with others. If a user chooses not to use one, we can't do anything with their photos, which is what happened to some of you today. So, all you need to do to make a great post is use a photo in Flickr covered by a CC license. Here's how:

1 - Go to the Flickr Creative Commons page: (I've chosen the type of license that means you have to say where it comes from, you can't use it for commercial reasons, and you can't change it - I think this serves our purposes.)

2 - Choose your tag and search for a photo with this license.

3 - Click on the photo you want to use.

4 - Right click on the photo can choose "Proprietà" or "Properties". Under "proprietà immagine" or "immage properties" you should have a url with the word static at the beginning, e.g. the one for my photo here is http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2084/1515601116_dfaa62ed6a_m.jpg

5 - Copy this url.

6 - In Blogger, open the post. Click on the icon "aggiungi immagine". Paste the url in the "url" box and choose location, dimension, etc.

7 - Save and your image should appear!

8 - Last thing: make a link to the home page of the photo or the author's home page for attribution (letting others know where it comes from).

I know it sounds like a lot, but it really is quite easy. It should help you avoid problems and will get the picture right on your post.

Write any comments if you're having troubles.

Good luck!

Sarah