Tim Bray’s Nudge about Wikipedia and Photography

In a blog post yesterday, Tim Bray talks about how he licensed a photograph he made of the interior of Sagrada Família for a book cover. The gist of the story is that he contributed a small version of the photograph to Wikipedia. The Oxford Press found it and then contacted him to license it. Tim got paid and everyone’s happy. He goes on to argue that his experience might serve as a template for some professional photographers to follow.

In his argument, Tim mentions me by name and the fact that I’ve been reluctant to contribute to Wikipedia. It’s true. I backed off from Wikipedia and using Creative Commons licenses four years ago after some unfortunate discussions that needed the kind of thought that I didn’t have time or the mental bandwidth for. I punted thinking through the various issues until later.

Later recently became now thanks to an incident where I was represented as being against Creative Commons licenses. I’ve spent the week or so since then putting a lot of thought into the intersection of permissive licensing and professional photography business models while finishing up my recent road trip. Coincidentally, some of that thinking has revolved around possibly using permissive licenses for lower resolution images while reserving higher resolution files. Tim’s argument meshes in with those thoughts quite nicely.

Tim, congratulations on having your image used for a book cover, and thanks for the nudge. It couldn’t have come at a better time. It’s great food for thought.