license

How to Get an FAA Part 107 License to Fly a Drone Commercially

Drones are awesome. Much more than just being fun novelties you might see buzzing around your neighbor’s backyard piloted by a young child, they are amazing creative tools that allow for camera shots that you simply cannot get in any other way, and are used in everything from music videos to live sports to the biggest blockbuster films.

Volvo Says All Public Instagram Photos are Fair Game in New Court Filing

A couple of months ago, automotive photographer Jack Schroeder and model Britni Sumida filed a lawsuit against car maker Volvo, accusing them of "willful and wanton" copyright infringement. In a major update to the case, Volvo is trying to get the suit thrown out by claiming that all public Instagram photos are basically free to use and share.

Licensed or Not? A Closer Look at the Fox News Flood Imagery Fiasco

In the face of breaking news, smartphones have made everyone a frontline reporter, and social media has allowed users to become self-publishers. However, with rare exceptions, most news content still relies on traditional media for mass distribution. Junior producers at large news-gathering organizations often attempt to obtain licensing rights directly from individuals via social media for photo and video that might not be available through wire services like AP, Reuters, and AFP.

A Lawyer Digs Into Instagram’s Terms of Use

Social media have so thoroughly infused our everyday lives that calling them “ubiquitous” seems inadequate. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and others take up an astonishing amount of our time, bandwidth, and attention, and have become indispensable business and marketing tools as well.

A Look at What Top Cloud Storage Services Say About Your Photo Rights

In the age of digital photography, many of us turn to online cloud solutions to help us backup our precious moments. However, the question that many of us want to know is what permissions a perspective service has with our content. With a form of hysteria sweeping the Web, we have decided to take a look at the industry’s top storage solutions and what their terms of service say about the files you upload. By using any of these solutions, you are automatically accepting their terms.

Please Reply #yes to Give Us Unlimited Rights to Your Photo

Yesterday we shared how one photographer was surprised when a casual request to "share" her Facebook photo turned out to be a request to use it in a national TV ad. Unfortunately for photographers, it seems more and more companies are requesting photos in similarly subtle ways.

Bing Now Allows You to Filter Your Image Searches by Licence

As the saying goes: "better late than never." In a move that puts Bing on par with the likes of Google's and Yahoo's image search engines, Microsoft's search giant has just added licensing refinements to its image searching capabilities as well.

A Flowchart For Figuring Out Which CC License You Should Use

Creative Commons is a non-profit organization founded in 2001 that, over the years, has released a set of licenses that enable creative types to share their work with others. The content creator allows others to use their work, just as long as the users follow the guidelines set forth in that particular license. It's a "some rights reserved" system rather than an "all rights reserved system."

In the photographic community, some aren't fond of CC licensing while others are downright prolific about it. But if you're looking to license some of your content in this way, this useful infographic put together by CC Australia will help you navigate the common licensing combinations.

Artist Has Self-Portrait Painting Approved as Drivers License Photograph

Check out this portrait photograph of Swedish artist Fredrik Saker. It's actually a self-portrait that Saker painted by hand. While we've seen and shared photo-realistic drawings before, Saker's came up with a clever way of validating his photo's realism: he managed to have it approved as his drivers license photo.

Photographer Suing Skechers for $250M for Violating Licensing Agreement

Here's a lawsuit you might want to keep an eye on: in late 2010, photographer Richard Reinsdorf sued shoe company Skechers for violating the licensing agreement for a number of images he made for the company between 2006 and 2009. While the lawsuit itself isn't anything unusual, the price demanded by Reinsdorf is: he wants $250 million.