It’s time for the upgrade you’ve been asking for! Flickr is rolling out support for Creative Commons 4.0 so you can access awesome new options for licensing and sharing your photos on Flickr. As the home of the largest collection of Creative Commons-licensed photos on the planet, Flickr has long championed the power of CC licensing to help photographers share their work while maintaining control over how it’s used. The CC 4.0 license suite is the most global and legally robust from CC yet. To hear a more detailed rundown on what the new CC license suite covers, we checked in with our friends over at Creative Commons and they explained just what makes this upgrade to CC 4.0 such a game changer. 

Flickr: How does CC 4.0 make content sharing or collaboration easier on digital platforms?

Creative Commons: Version 4 is better adapted to international use, addressing more rights and considerations around sharing of works that appear in countries around the world. It also provides for simpler attribution requirements that more closely align with how giving credit is often put into practice. Additionally, it provides a window for correcting license violations to make it easier to reuse works. 

F: Can you explain how CC 4.0 handles attribution differently or more effectively?

CC: The requirement is simplified from previous versions, explicitly allowing credit for the work to be given by a link where reasonable. (Also, the link to the source must be kept with the work if supplied.)

F: How does CC 4.0 improve international enforceability compared to earlier versions?

CC: This version explicitly addresses many considerations that appear in jurisdictions around the world, such as database rights and copyright-like rights, so there is more certainty about the scope of the license in various jurisdictions. There has also been simplification and improvement to the terminology used in the license to make sure the scope of the license was clearly understandable around the world.

Additionally, there are now 32 translations of the full legal code of the license suite. These translations, developed by our international community of volunteers in collaboration with CC legal staff, are intended to be enforceable in court without reference to the English version, so that speakers of other languages can clearly understand their rights and obligations in their native language.

Now you know the details, what’s next?

If your account defaults to one of the six Creative Commons 2.0 licenses, we’ll automatically upgrade it to 4.0 for all your future uploads. Easy peasy—no clicks required. As for your existing photos with CC 2.0 licenses, they’ll stay just as they are unless you decide to update them. If you prefer other license types or dedication tools, don’t worry, those won’t be affected by this change.

We have something in the works for bulk updating your license so stay tuned for that announcement. In the meantime,  you can make updates to your current licenses via the Organizr and also Camera Roll by following the steps in this help center article. 

Creative Commons 4.0 brings clearer terms, better international usability, and more flexibility for creators like you and we’re excited to support a stronger, smarter future for open sharing on Flickr. The new 4.0 version rollout will be gradual, with the goal of making it available to all members by the end of this week. For more information about Creative Commons on Flickr, get the full run down at our help center!