# Wrong License Applied to My Existing Observations **URL:** \ **Category:** Bug Reports\ **Created:** [March 25, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445 "2021-03-25T01:37:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![longtermist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@longtermist](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/longtermist)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 1:37am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/1 "2021-03-25T01:37:47Z")
Please fill out the following sections to the best of your ability, it will help us investigate bugs if we have this information at the outset. Screenshots are especially helpful, so please provide those if you can. **Platform** (Android, iOS, Website): Website **App version number** , if a mobile app issue (shown under Settings or About): **Browser** , if a website issue (Firefox, Chrome, etc) : Microsft Edge Version 89.0.774.57 (Official build) (64-bit) (this is the new, Chromium-based, Edge browser) **URLs (aka web addresses) of any relevant observations or pages**: **Screenshots of what you are seeing** (instructions for taking a screenshot on computers and mobile devices: [https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/](https://www.take-a-screenshot.org/)): **Description of problem** (please provide a set of steps we can use to replicate the issue, and make as many as you need.): Step 1: Go to Account Settings Step 2: On the left, click Content & Display Step 3: Change all three default observation license choices to BY-NC-SA (Attribution, Non-Commercial Share-Alike) Step 4: Under each selection, check-mark “Update existing observations with new license choices” Step 5: Scroll back to top of page; on the top right, Click Save Settings Step 6: Look at existing observations: they are BY-NC so the SA (Share-Alike) part is missing Step 7: Edit an individual observation and change its license to BY-NC-SA, also check-marking the option for other observations; save the edits Result: The edited observation has the correct license but previous ones still show the wrong one. Please fix this glitch so I can change my existing observations to BY-NC-SA. Thanks in advance. PS: Sorry about the formatting of this post - the editing window was too narrow and I could not see the right side of any line that was wider. Another glitch, but the workaround is to press Return key to keep the lines short. ---
**Author:** ![zdanko](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/zdanko/32/20125_2.png) [@zdanko](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/zdanko)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 2:08am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/2 "2021-03-25T02:08:10Z")
How long did you wait after making the changes before creating this forum post? It might take a while, especially if you have many observations. ---
**Author:** ![marina\_gorbunova](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/marina_gorbunova/32/31454_2.png) [@marina\_gorbunova](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/marina_gorbunova)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 2:10am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/3 "2021-03-25T02:10:14Z")
I also am pretty sure it’s about waiting for some time. ---
**Author:** ![fluffyinca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/fluffyinca/32/10786_2.png) [@fluffyinca](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/fluffyinca)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 3:15am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/4 "2021-03-25T03:15:01Z")
May I ask why you’re licensing your observations as BY-NC-SA? If I remember right, that means they can’t be exported to GBIF. Edit: I remembered right. Just found this graph that shows CC BY-NC-SA to be the worst possible observation license. ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/inaturalist/original/3X/b/0/b0a148093b49e3530da99ba200648d4c949b6424.png) ---
**Author:** ![mertensia](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/mertensia/32/7505_2.png) [@mertensia](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/mertensia)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 3:54am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/5 "2021-03-25T03:54:27Z")
Thank you for this. I just changed my settings to be CC-BY :). The change has not yet occurred, so I agree there is probably a wait. ---
**Author:** ![cthawley](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cthawley/32/1445_2.png) [@cthawley](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cthawley)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 3:14pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/6 "2021-03-25T15:14:47Z")
Probably worth noting that the combo CC BY-SA + CC BY-NC (center of diagram) isn’t a choice on iNat (can only apply one license). ---
**Author:** ![fluffyinca](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/fluffyinca/32/10786_2.png) [@fluffyinca](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/fluffyinca)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/7 "2021-03-25T15:19:20Z")
Yeah, I was confused by that. But the point stands - for sharing data, CC BY is the best and CC BY-NC-SA is the worst. ---
**Author:** ![cmcheatle](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/cmcheatle/32/37_2.png) [@cmcheatle](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/cmcheatle)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2021, 3:24pm UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/8 "2021-03-25T15:24:53Z")
I think it would be best to leave the discussion in this thread to the bug report. There are already many active threads on the forum about what license to use, the implications of them etc. ---
**Author:** ![bouteloua](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/bouteloua/32/1180_2.png) [@bouteloua](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/bouteloua)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/9 "2021-03-27T00:51:19Z")
All the observations I checked do show the license you selected, so I’ll close this. ---
**Author:** ![bouteloua](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.inaturalist.org/bouteloua/32/1180_2.png) [@bouteloua](https://forum.inaturalist.org/u/bouteloua)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2021, 12:51am UTC](https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/wrong-license-applied-to-my-existing-observations/21445/10 "2021-03-27T00:51:21Z")