I was wondering what people’s opinions were about people using their inaturalist images for references for drawing? There was this thread https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/using-inat-for-art-inspiration/9212/7 but it had very few responses, and didn’t differentiate between two things that I think many people would have pretty different opinions on - using an image along with 25 others as inspiration for a drawing, or doing a painting or something based on one single image with the aim to paint something appearing as close to the original image as possible.
At the moment I often draw things based on inaturalist images, but then don’t post them online or sell the prints because it’s kind of in a complicated area for copyright, but personally I would be totally happy if people wanted to use my images for that kind of stuff.
I was wondering if a solution could be starting a project you could join and add all your observations to, saying that you would be happy to have your images used by people doing illustrations in any manner (i.e. allowing other people to do illustrations based on your photos and sell prints commercially or something, but not use the original photos commercially like setting all the images CC0) but obviously this only works if lots of people do it. Inaturalist is particularly useful for this kind of stuff as it tends to have lots of photos of species behaving naturally in their environment, in natural lighting, and from a range of angles which is really useful particularly compared to when you search up images on other places and it’s often mostly close ups of the face of the animal in a zoo or something
I’ve used iNaturalist observations for some of my drawings, but I usually don’t just copy one particular photo. I like to look at a lot of them and then draw my own.
While my artistic skill leaves much to be desired, and I haven’t attempted to draw any iNaturalist photos, I do think that such a project would be a cool and creative use of iNaturalist. I personally would definitely try asking the owner of the photo for explicit permission before attempting to draw it, even if it is in the project, but the project could be a central place to find and contact willing and active users.
It’s good to be considerate, but you really don’t need anyone’s permission to draw something unless you’re going to use the image for commercial purposes or it’s a portrait of their face.
In this case I am only using reference photos that are licensed so that I am allowed to use them in this manner (CC0, CC-BY, or CC-BY-SA), and following the terms of the license, since I am directly tracing or copying aspects of the reference photos.
If you are generally aware of what the species looks like from looking at iNat photos, but you are not referencing specific images, then I doubt there are any restrictions. (I am not a lawyer)
I mean, being an illustrator myself, it’s become more and more of a vital tool, especially how terrible google image search has gotten for finding references that aren’t from a stock site.
However, like you, I draw the line (harhar) at copying something exactly. 99% of the time it’s just seeing how something looks and acts, and building a visual idea of how it moves in a 3D space. If I draw a lion from memory, it’s probably going to start looking like a domestic cat as my brain tries to fill in spaces with what it knows.
I think most people who realize how references work in most art generally are pretty cool with it, but I can understand why photographers need to be on their guard, as they’re in the same boat as us for getting taken for granted.
No need for a project – iNaturalist users already answer that question when they choose the license for their media (photos, sounds) on the platform. For example, if someone chooses the unrestricted CC0 license, that means they are happy for anyone to do anything with their imagery; if they choose “all rights reserved” (regular copyright) then they are NOT happy for you to use their imagery without their permission. The intermediate licenses (CC-BY, CC-SA, etc.) add specific restrictions - you can use these images so long as your respect the specific license. For more information, see the help page.
So, read the licenses for any images you want to use. If in doubt, ask the user. If still in doubt, consult a copyright attorney. Even if the user has an unrestricted license, it’s still polite to ask them before using their photos.
A few people have asked me for permission to use my photos as a basis to illustrate species for books or guides, and I’ve been happy to give it. I have my licenses set to non-commercial by default, but am happy to change that if someone ask for permission.
I think that the best course of action is to just message people directly to ask for permission if you plan on distributing the result anywhere, since the vast majority of people won’t join a project unless specifically asked to.
Several people have said “just ask,” and I don’t think there’s any downside to that. If someone contacted me to say “I would like to make a drawing of your photo XXX and sell it at a craft fair,” I would say sure, go ahead, thinking about the work and creativity they’d have to put in – they’re not just copy-pasting. But I would also have the option to say no. So rather than relying on some gray area of copyright law, artists should just ask. It might be the beginning of a productive partnership.
Is it actually considered impolite to use a photo in away that complies with the CC license without getting permission? I am using 1,000+ reference photos for the book I’m writing, and it would be impractical to wait for responses from everyone whose photos I use before I start drawing. I’ve also seen people get flagged for spam when they informed everyone whose photos they referenced that their book was out
So I’m wondering whether it is a good or bad thing to notify people that I am using their photos, do people want this or not? Personally I am happy if someone uses my photo, so I like knowing, but you certainly don’t have to ask as long as you comply with the license (commercial use you do have to ask since most of mine are licensed CC-BY-NC)
i wonder how the folks who got flagged did their informing? if it were me, i think i would make a journal post that thanks everyone, with a big table that shows page number, taxon, observation, and observer, etc. if the observer is in @observer format, that should take care of the notifications.
For my part, no. I had one person ask me and I reminded them that my copyright setting would allow them to use the photo with attribution but without notification. They insisted they needed my explicit permission and I gave them one.
I have found a few dozen of my photos being used across the Internet. I found them because they had attributed me, as required. But I never asked for or expected them to notify me. If I had wanted that, I would have chosen a different copyright setting. I likely would have been annoyed by all those people asking.
I don’t mean to diminish the concept of ‘polite’ but it often functions as a concept where there isn’t a meeting of the minds with all parties involved. Especially when the parties involved don’t know each other or know anything about each other. People expecting a code of politeness from people they don’t know is a recipe for disappointment.
I agree - If people have made their images available via license, they don’t need to be informed or asked for permission. Their choice of license (especially if it isn’t the default), has made their choice clear.
If you know someone might want to know you are using their image/s for some other reason (you know them personally, saw something on their profile about it, found lots of their images particularly helpful), it is probably fine to write them a personal note saying that. But I definitely wouldn’t DM everyone! A list of sources with proper attributions should be fine.
I would be hypocrite if I were against it. I straight up took pictures from internet to try making 1:1 drawing. I don’t sell them or use to promote anything, I just shared them on Discord and subreddits
I believe technically this still counts as a copyright violation (not saying this as criticism just trying to be clear for everyone here what is and isn’t a violation)
I’m sure that definitely works for a lot of people and that’s what I do for like final images, but I do scientific illustration stuff semi professionally haha so do a lot of practice which consists basically copying an image as much as possible, at the moment I just don’t use those for anything commercial or post them but it seems a bit sad not to sometimes
Yep I understand that, I was asking that and proposing a project because I think a lot of people (me for example) would not want to use CC0 because they are not happy with their photos being used commercially, but would be completely happy with someone like, 99% copying the image as an artist which is kind of ambiguous with the specific licenses. Also it is awkward to ask and a specific project makes it so people don’t have to do that because everyone joining agrees it’s okay for their photos to be used in that way when joining.
