I’ve been asked and I said yes to drawings and yes to use of photos with credits.
2 Likes
Just a heads-up, you can use the Quote button after selecting text to respond to multiple posts in one post. It will result in a cleaner thread.
1 Like
What is the project for, exactly? If the project is for giving everyone blanket permission to use your photos as an art reference, you end up with the same problem. (All of these people said these photos could be used for art references, but does my specific use count?)
If the project is for people giving permission to use their photos for a specific project, you’re right back to asking people for specific permission again.
This example is really not ambiguous. You would need permission, and a license that gives you permission to create derivative works (CC licenses that don’t include ND) would already give you that permission (so long as you follow whatever the other terms are).
Oh, another thing! If you know how to manipulate the search URLs, you can search for more than one license at a time, which helps.
For example, here are 672 observations with photos of Snowy Owls that you can use for whatever (including making money) as long as you give credit:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order_by=votes&photo_license=cc-by,cc0&taxon_id=144594
This search is for CC0 (basically public domain) and CC-BY (attribution required). Since neither of these licenses is the default, you can be sure that all of the people who made those observations deliberately chose to do that. You could expand the search to include more licenses depending on your specific needs.
Here is a page which lists the various ways you can mess around with search URLs, including this one:
https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/search+urls#licenses
2 Likes
I am a professional photographer and have had people as me for peemissiom to what you are asking. I have no problem with it as long as it is a nature subject.
This is only my personal opinion. When it comes to my photos of natural things I feel like I am kind of copying the Creators art. I did not create what I am taking a picture of, so I don’t feel like I can own the subject. I can own the photo, but not the subject of the photo. The Creator owns the subject. If someone wants to use the subject as inspiration or guidance to create art, I am okay with it because I am not the original artist of the subject, the Creator is.
This is just my opinion on the subject.
2 Likes
I like that opinion.
I learned to oil paint by “copying” photos in magazines. It was an easy way to learn composition. My paintings resembled the photos at best.
As an artist you would be creating a new piece of art, resembling my photo. That’s ok. It’s not ok to reproduce my photo and sell or pass that off as your own.
3 Likes
Unless someone’s posting it to promote themselves on social media or selling it, to be honest, I couldn’t care less to what extent they “copy” a photo. I think policing how and what people draw is a great way to discourage people, particularly people new at drawing and teenagers (who care too much about what others think anyway), from drawing at all. We can’t all be professional illustrators who can draw from 30 reference photos by “getting a feel for the animal.” I just don’t see what anyone gains from doing this, aside from feeling pompous.
I’m not an artist, but I’ve seen artists tear apart kids for “tracing and copying” photos. Aside from being an American property law attorney, I don’t really understand what motivates people to care so much.
And yet those artists likely have no problem with “copying” a posed, live model.
I guess kids could use AI-generated slop instead of photos, surely no one would complain about that LOL.
We can’t all be professional illustrators who can draw from 30 reference photos by “getting a feel for the animal.”
Hey, I resemble that remark! (j/k, getting references is suffering) But I get your point. When people are doing art/drawings/studies/etc of things, they need familiarity. It’s why a lot of people will do master studies, ie take a painting and try to recreate it, in order to learn.
The more resources out there, the better. iNat’s a great place to find references as well as to contribute in return.
1 Like
I work in publishing, and I think it’s a matter of how you use the images. If you just like to draw, no worries. If you’re publishing them or selling them, I would definitely ask, regardless of settings. A good ask would say, this is is how I’m going to use the images, is that ok, would you like to be credited, and if so how. I think most people would be delighted, but it’s easy enough to ask, and you’ll likely make someone’s day. And if someone’s not ok with it, better to find out beforehand.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.