You found the perfect photo on Flickr and you want to know if you are able to use it. While Flickr is the world’s best photo sharing community, we insist that you abide by all copyright laws while using content you did not create.
Why do I need permission to use a photo?
At this time, all images uploaded to Flickr are, by default, set to All Rights Reserved with the content creator holding the copyright for the imagery. All Rights Reserved is a form of copyright that indicates that the copyright holder reserves, or holds for their own use, all the rights provided by copyright law.
While some content creators upload their content under the Creative Commons license, which allows for a more relaxed copyright on the imagery, this still allows the creator to retain control over their images and how they can be used.
You’ll find the copyright/license information directly under the photo:
How can I get permission to use the photo?
To use any content that appears on Flickr, you must first contact the account owner to obtain their permission before moving forward with using any of their imagery. Using any content shared on Flickr, without the owner’s permission, could potentially constitute copyright infringement.
We recommend looking over the following articles from our knowledge base, which contain a bit more information on these types of licensing:
How can I contact the photo owner?
To contact the copyright holder, you will need to create a Flickr account and reach out to them using FlickrMail. The following article contains step by step instructions on how to do so: Send & Receive Flickrmail. For security reasons, we are not able to contact another member on your behalf, or share any contact information that is not visible on the member’s About page.