Flickr CEO Confirms Virtual World Photographers "Are Photographers" -- But They Should Still Check Flickr's New Policies Against 1000+ Images, Commercial Promotion

Flickr CEO Don MacAskill just confirmed in an online forum that virtual world photographers "are photographers". This statement clarifies Flickr's new policy announcement suggesting that non-photographic images would be removed from the service. Second Life and other virtual worlds/games have strong sub-communities of people who upload beautifully composed and lit screenshots to Flickr. SL's Flickr presence in particular seems largest and the most thriving, counting dozens of groups, some with nearly 30,000 members each, but groups dedicated to screenshots they took in The Sims, World of Warcraft, and other MMOs and virtual worlds are active there too.

Unsurprisingly, in recent days the SL community on Flickr has been roiled with concern and confusion over this new announcement, fearing it means their images would be removed. But MacAskill just made it plain that they're here to stay on the platform, responding to a question from one SLer: 

Virtual photographer are photographers. You care about photography, so we care about you. It's that simple. I don't know where the idea that you aren't "real" photographers, or that virtual photography is somehow spam, came from but that's not from me. You are welcome at Flickr.

In this, MacAskill is actually being loyal to Flickr's origins -- it was first created in 2004 as a tool for a virtual world called Game Neverending, and co-founders Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield are quite familiar with Second Life and SLers using their service. (I was still at Linden Lab when one staffer shouted excitedly, "I saw Catrina and Stewart logged in!") 

All that said, virtual world photographers who do use Flickr should read this announcement and the updated community guidelines, because it's still probably relevant to them, especially these sections:

Free accounts will soon be limited to 1,000 photos or videos. Flickr isn’t Flickr without the contributions and participation of our free members, and we remain committed to a vibrant free offering.

Don't use Flickr for unauthorized commercial activity: If you have a free account and don’t have a Flickr Pro account, you may not link directly to a shopping cart, checkout page, or pricing pages on other sites, and you may not list prices on your Flickr photo descriptions.

Lots of SLers have way more than 1000 pics uploaded to Flickr. The last point is problematic for the many SL brands and content creators who promote their SL Marketplace items on Flickr, and include links to their in-world store or the SL Marketplace on the web. In either case, the best solution is upgrade to Flickr Pro.

Comments

[Daro]

The fact that you need to be a pro user to use Flickr commercially has always been the case, it's one of the most commonly ignored rules, but always been in place. I am not sure if the SLUrls apply to the rule, as many stores seem to have been 'clever' and posted just thos. I am fairly sure that Blueberry won't mind paying 50 bucks instead of mooching like it has been doing so far.