Editor’s Note: Flickr updated their community guidelines today, items removed are stricken out and items added are bolded.
Flickr Community Guidelines
Flickr accounts are intended for personal use, for our members to share photos and video that they themselves have created.
The following Community Guidelines are here to help you understand what it means to be a member of Flickr. Don’t forget that your use of Flickr is subject to these Guidelines and our Terms of Use.
What to do
Do play nice.
We’re a global community of many types of people, who all have the right to feel comfortable and who may not think what you think, believe what you believe or see what you see. So, be polite and respectful in your interactions with other members.
Do upload content that you have created.
Respect the copyright of others. This means don’t steal photos or videos that other people have shared and pass them off as your own. (That’s what favorites are for.)
Do moderate your content.
You need to take responsibility for ensuring that what you upload is appropriately flagged. If your judgment proves to be poor, we’ll moderate your account to match appropriate ratings for safe search and/or content type and send you a warning.
Photo content must be flagged as “safe”, “moderate” or “restricted.” Video on Flickr may only include “safe” or “moderate” content — “restricted” video content is not allowed on Flickr and will be removed.
Please note that although you may upload “safe”, “moderate” or “restricted” content, some countries may only allow you to view “safe” or “safe” & “moderate” content. There’s more about this in our FAQs.
All content on Flickr, public and private, has to be appropriately moderated as “safe,” “moderate,” or “restricted” using our safety and content filters. If your judgment proves to be poor, we’ll moderate your account to match appropriate ratings for safe search and/or content type and send you a warning.
Do link back to Flickr when you post your Flickr content elsewhere.
The Flickr service makes it possible to post content hosted on Flickr to outside other web sites. However, pages on other web sites that display content hosted on flickr.com must provide a link from each photo or video back to its page on Flickr.
Do enjoy Flickr!
See the world through others’ eyes, participate, find your muse, and expand your horizons!
What not to do
Here’s the deal: In most circumstances, we like to give second chances,so we’ll send you a warning if you step across any of the lines listed below. Subsequent violations can result in account termination without warning.
We like to give second chances. However, stepping across any of the lines listed below may result in account deletion with or without warning.
Don’t upload anything that isn’t yours.
This includes other people’s photos, video and/or stuff you’ve collected from around the Internet. Accounts that consist primarily of such collections may be terminated deleted at any time.
Don’t forget the children.
Take the opportunity to filter your content responsibly. If you would hesitate to show your photos or videos to a child, your mum, or Uncle Bob, that means it needs to be filtered. you need to set the appropriate content filter setting. If you don’t, your account will be moderated and possibly deleted by Flickr staff. So, ask yourself that question as you upload your content and moderate accordingly. If you don’t, it’s likely that one of two things will happen. Your account will be reviewed then either moderated or terminated by Flickr staff.
Don’t show nudity in your buddy icon.
Only content considered “safe” is appropriate for your buddy icon. If we find that you’ve uploaded a buddy icon that contains “moderate” or “restricted” content, we’ll remove the buddy icon, moderate your account as “restricted” and send you a warning. If we find you doing it again, we’ll terminate delete your account.
Don’t upload content that is illegal or prohibited.
If we find you doing that, your account will be deleted and we’ll take appropriate action, which may include reporting you to the authorities.
Don’t vent your frustrations, rant, or bore the brains out of other members.
Flickr is not a venue for you to harass, abuse, impersonate, or intimidate others. If we receive a valid complaint about your conduct, we’ll send you a warning or terminate your account.
Don’t be creepy.
You know the guy. Don’t be that guy.
Don’t use your account to host web graphics like logos and banners.
Your account will be terminated if we find you using it to host graphic elements of web page designs, icons, smilies, buddy icons, forum avatars, badges, and other non-photographic elements on external web sites.
Don’t use Flickr for commercial purposes.
Flickr is for personal use only. If we find you selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream, we will terminate your account. Any other commercial use of Flickr, Flickr technologies (including APIs, FlickrMail, etc), or Flickr accounts must be approved by Flickr. For more information on leveraging Flickr APIs, please see our Services page. If you have other open questions about commercial usage of Flickr, please feel free to contact us.
Don’t use Flickr to sell.
If we find you engaging in commercial activity, we will warn you or delete your account. Some examples include selling products, services, or yourself through your photostream or in a group, using your account solely as a product catalog, or linking to commercial sites in your photostream. If you engage in commercial activity elsewhere on the internets or in the real world, you’re still welcome on Flickr—in fact, we’ve even set up some best practices especially for you.
Here are some other things to keep in mind:
Other People (their content, their behavior)
You will see all sorts of things on Flickr, some of which may offend you. If you are offended by a photo or video you can either click away or you can mark it as poorly moderated by clicking on the “Flag this photo” link on a photo page under “Additional Information”. If you think there’s immediate cause for concern, you can report content and/or someone’s behavior to Flickr staff via the “Report Abuse” link that’s available in the footer of every page.Note: Please report from the specific page that the offensive content appears—this gives us all the information we need to take action.
Copyright Infringement
If you see photos or videos that you’ve created in another member’s photostream, don’t panic. This is probably just a misunderstanding and not malicious. A good first step is to contact them via flickrmail and politely ask them to remove it. If that doesn’t work, please file a Notice of Infringement with the Yahoo! Copyright Team who will take it from there. Check out the “Copyright/IP Policy” link in the footer of every page for more information.
You may be tempted to post an entry on your photostream or in our public forum about what’s happening, but that’s not the best way to resolve a possible copyright problem. We don’t encourage singling out individuals like this on Flickr as it could be seen as harassment which is against our guidelines.
In Conclusion
We’ve crafted these guidelines to ensure that everyone within the community has the experience they want. It’s important that you understand the importance of moderating your content responsibly. If you don’t feel that you can abide by our Community Guidelines as outlined above, maybe Flickr isn’t for you.
If you don’t feel that you can abide by our Community Guidelines as outlined above, maybe Flickr isn’t for you. We’ve crafted these guidelines to ensure that everyone within the Flickr community has the experience they want.
If you ever have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you. Please feel free to drop us a line through Help by Email.
The Flickreenos
