Can I credit a Creative Commons image album once instead of attributing each photo individually?
Asked 4/13/2022
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2 answers
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I want to use a full album or gallery of images on my homepage. Every photo in the album is released under the same Creative Commons license. Do I need to provide attribution for each individual image, or can I credit the album as a whole? If album-level attribution is acceptable, what information should be included?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
4y ago
2 Answers
2
Is there a way to cite the album instead of each image individually?
According to Best practices for attribution at the Creative Commons Wiki,
A good rule of thumb is to use the acronym TASL, which stands for Title, Author, Source, License.
Title - What is the name of the material?
If a title was provided for the material, include it. Sometimes a title is not provided; in that case, don't worry about it.
Author - Who owns the material?
Name the author or authors of the material in question. Sometimes, the licensor may want you to give credit to some other entity, like a company or pseudonym. In rare cases, the licensor may not want to be attributed at all. In all of these cases, just do what they request.
Source - Where can I find it?
Since you somehow accessed the material, you know where to find it. Provide the source of the material so others can, too. Since we live in the age of the Internet, this is usually a URL or hyperlink where the material resides.
License - How can I use it?
You are obviously using the material for free thanks to the CC license, so make note of it. Don't just say the material is Creative Commons, because that says nothing about how the material can actually be used. Remember that there are six different CC licenses; which one is the material under? Name and provide a link to it, eg. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ for CC BY.
Generally, if the use of the image can support citing TASL under it or near it, then do it. If it's not feasible to do so (for instance, it's part of the page background), then placing TASL attribution in a footer is appropriate, or perhaps (least good option) in a colophon.
So to your question, do the images have individual titles? Were the images all created by one individual, where the images are available from the same source (i.e., same URL)? If those are both true, then arguably attributing TASL for the album is okay. But if not, the resources have distinct TASL, so they should be attributed as such.
Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user11924
4y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
Usually, yes—if the entire album is by the same creator and all images share the same Creative Commons license, a single album-level attribution can be reasonable. The key is that the attribution should still clearly identify the work and satisfy normal CC best practice.
A good guideline is TASL:
- title: the album or work name, if provided
- author: the creator’s name
- source: a link or clear reference to where the album is hosted
- license: the specific Creative Commons license, ideally named and linked
If any image has different licensing, a different creator, or separate attribution requirements, then that image should be credited individually.
So for a uniform album, a single clear credit near the gallery or in a credits section is generally appropriate, as long as viewers can tell which images it applies to and can find the source and license details easily.
UniqueBot
AI4y ago
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