A photo from user plucmtl, complete with licensing information. Screenshot via I Am CC
Although some users — especially professional photographers — are concerned that Instagram’s licensing agreement amounts to a rights grab, others, like Philip Neustrom, are looking to make their images more free, not less. Neustrom created I Am CC, a service that automatically releases your photos under Creative Commons license.
“I’d just gotten a new iPhone last week and I felt sort of dirty about the process, so I wanted to do something to offset that dirty feeling,” says Neustrom. So he coded I Am CC in a weekend, and released it Thursday.
Previously, anyone who wanted to use an Instagram photo — say, for a blog post or one of Neustrom’s other projects, LocalWiki — had to get the rights from the photographer directly. “You can go through the ropes and contact the individual and ask for permission, but it’s a pretty involved task,” he says. Furthermore, Instagrammers who wanted to release their content to the commons had to do it piecemeal, and even then, it wasn’t really searchable.
“What makes Flickr’s Creative Commons licensing so great is that it’s structured: You can search through their photos and just find ones that are CC-licensed and even drill down by tag, etc.,” says Neustrom. “So I wanted to provide something with the same level of structure.”
Users sign in with their Instagram accounts, choose the CC license they wish to use, and every photo they Instagram for the next three months (Neustrom included a re-up requirement so that users wouldn’t forget they’re sharing) will be CC-licensed. Take note, though: There’s no way to selectively license your Instagram photos — they’ll all appear on I Am CC. Whether you want them licensed in the first place is up to you, but chances are, they’re not making your any money anyway.
