When you take a photo, you are the rightful owner of the content. Licensing gives you control of how others can use your photos. Our goal is to help you understand how to change your photo licenses and to understand the difference between each type.
How to Change Your License on Flickr
Updates to license types can be done exclusively on a desktop & can be updated as often as you’d like.
One photo at a time
- Sign in to Flickr on a desktop.
- Select a photo to open the photo page.
- Next to the Ⓒ icon, select the arrow to open the drop-down menu.
- Select your desired license type to apply.
Multiple photos at once (for Pro users only)
- Hover over You | select Camera Roll.
- Select the photos you want to change.
- Click Edit.
- Select your new license from the "Copyright protection level" menu.
- Click Save.
Default license applied to new uploads
Your default license settings only apply to new photos you upload.
- Go to your account's privacy settings.
- Click Edit next to “What license will your content have”.
- Select your new license | click Set Default License.
Licenses supported by Flickr
Below are the license types supported by Flickr. Visit the accompanying link to learn more about each type.
All Rights Reserved
You, the copyright holder, reserve all rights provided by copyright law, such as the right to make copies, distribute your work, perform your work, license, or otherwise exploit your work; no rights are waived under this license.
Note: If you are wishing to use any content that appears on Flickr, you must first contact the account holder to obtain their permission before moving forward with using any of their imagery, as doing so without their permission could potentially constitute copyright infringement.
We recommend using FlickrMail to get in touch with the owner of the photo.
Public Domain Work
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/
Public Domain Dedication (CC0)
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
Attribution
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Attribution-ShareAlike
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Attribution-NoDerivs
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/
Attribution-NonCommercial
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
To learn more, visit: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/
Special Licenses
Flickr must set up the following license types especially for your account. Once your account is configured for either of these types, you can only upload images of that one type. To simply release the copyright of your images or declare them in the public domain, consider using the more flexible and widely used Public Domain or CC0 licenses instead of reconfiguring your account.
United States government work
To learn more, visit: http://www.usa.gov/government-works/ and Contact Flickr to request this license type for your account.
No known copyright restrictions
To learn more, visit: https://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/, as well as The Commons FAQ for frequently asked questions and to apply to join the Flickr Commons.