We have had several requests from guests recently asking for permission to use gallery photos for various purposes such as training manuals, and it can be a long process trying to make contact with some of the less active members to obtain permission.

Could I ask that any members who have strong preferences one way or the other as to whether they are prepared to allow their images to be used, and under what conditions, to let us know, or to put a note in their profile or gallery information somewhere. This will make our task of trying to obtain permission somewhat less onerous..!

Many thanks,

Ria 

I'll go ahead and throw my preferences of a madman in.

You can use my photos as long as you credit me, they are for a non profit purpose (ie your not using them to actively make money), and please do not post them on any other social media platform, forum, etc.

Thanks Max, that's exactly what we need to know. We would always insist on attribution being given to the member and also the site.

Use photos for training brochures? I'm down with that.

I'm assuming that's a yes..? Are there any instances where you would not give permission..?

Mhh... I did come across one of my photos in an eBay listing once, so it's obvious at least one of my photos was used elsewhere on the interwebs. I've been trying to reach professional quality with my photos for years, so I guess that's to be expected. 

Now I can't tell if there's ever been a formal request on here regarding my images, but I don't see any reason to be opposed to it. But I'd have to figure out which Creative Commons license to choose.

I don't recall anyone asking specifically about your photos Vince. In any case we would always ask permission directly once we know why they want to use them. All we really want to know now is whether you have any preferences one way or the other.

I see some members like Xmaslightguy add a watermark on their content so thats a good option if you don't want ebay sellers or others stealing without asking. Also making your photos members only is another idea

I don't recall anyone asking specifically about your photos Vince. In any case we would always ask permission directly once we know why they want to use them. All we really want to know now is whether you have any preferences one way or the other.

Oh I certainly don't mind. It would be on a case-by-case basis, but otherwise why not!

I'd fine with if a student wanted to use some of mine for a school project or something like that.
But I would not be ok with commercial use of any type.

I’m confused?, does anyone even ever ask for photo permission?, considering you don’t even have to be signed into LG to take photos off it, I’m guessing many people don’t?
Now on LR, you can’t take photos off it, you can’t even download YOUR OWN photos off it!  , but for iPhone users you only have to expand the photo and then screen shot it, and you have the photo anyway!!

I don’t have any problem with anyone using my photos, but given what I say above, it seems a bit pointless to get outside users to seek permission, unless the whole gallery download system is going to be overhauled?

If you set your gallery to members only, it will require membership to view them. I set a few of my albums to that, like experiments.

@AngryHorse - Photos on LG remain the intellectual property of the photographer. So if you upload anything, if someone wants to use it then strictly speaking they should ask permission. Many don't, but they should. This is in direct contradiction with the policies of other sites, like Flickr or FarceBuke, where as soon as you upload something, they grab the rights to do what they want with it, which you have to agree to when you sign up.

You can make your photos private to non-members, so they can't be seen by guests if you want, that is set in the properties screen for each individual gallery.

The admin team do sometimes get requests from people wanting to use photos, often of old lamps or street lights. We have had a couple recently from organisations wanting to use photos for their training manuals and similar internal publications. We are obliged in situations like this to seek permission from the member who posted the photos, and if they have been inactive for a long time, as some have been, it can be difficult. We don't have the right to give permission on someone else's behalf, we have to ask.

This is why I am asking for anyone who has preferences one way or the other to say so here, then we can build up a database so we don't have to spend time trying to find out whether someone has objections or not.

I'll put you down as an "I don't mind" 

My photos are off limits to being used for purposes outside of this site unless A) I know who is asking for the use of my work and B) why they want to use my pictures. Regardless, I would require they give credit, and everything would need my permission.

Not a problem, thanks for letting us know