I am invited to set a licence for photos and other media but it is not made clear what the different licences mean. It would be helpful to have some guidance on the different licences listed and the implications of each. If I set a licence on here does this affect my claims to copyright everywhere and if not where is it limited to? If I don't set a licence what are the consequences with respect to iRecord and its functions? Thanks in advance.
Hi Jonathan.
Dealing with the last two questions first:
If you set a licence permission on iRecord, then that licence applies to all of the pictures you put on iRecord after choosing it, but doesn't affect your copyright for images not on iRecord. Anyone can use the pictures that are licenced, not just verifiers, county recorders etc.
If you don't choose a licence then the assumption is that you maintain full copyright over the images. It makes no difference to the main function of iRecord as the data can still be used, it just means if someone wants to use one of your pictures, e.g. in a county wildlife report, they would have to contact you directly and ask permission. Note that iNaturalist works differently and defaults to a licence for the actual data (not just photos) which can cause problems because it restricts certain uses of the records.
Full details about all of the licences can be found here: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/
It is quite wordy - I would say the main ones are:
ARR - All rights reserved, i.e. fully copyrighted, no using without permission
CC-BY-NC - Can be used for any non-commercial purpose as long as the photo is attributed to the creater of the image
CC-BY - Can be used for any purpose as long as the photo is attributed to the creater of the image
CC0 - No restrictions on use