http://goldencompass.com/blog/just-because-its-free-doesnt-mean-its-yours/

By Michael Benidt

There is no real technical possibility to protect them: if you can saw them, you can copy them. Scan a book, download a jpeg, take a photo of a painting, alt-print screen a flash slideshow. It’s always possible to remove a watermark if it’s still possible to understand the meaning of an image.

The better way, for me, is to know who could be capable to steal your images and for what aim. For me, as a real estate agent, it’s my local concurrence. It happened to me once (not from flickr but my own website), I read some case law, and now I know how to intimidate thieves.

On the other hand, flickr’s sharing functions are just great: if it’s not for my paid work, all my pictures are under a CC attribution license, it’s easy to adjust the license for each. And so they can be used for anything, I find that great, like Wikipedia. For example, some of my photos are used on a touristic site (with attribution!) on the Sultan Hassan mosquee in Cairo.

I think the success of the group (and others) is bound to the sharing features of flickr. I think it wouldn’t be a great idea to make it difficult for others to join.

…no hang on that’s not quite right is it.

Pretty close to it though.