Flickr says Creative Commons photos won’t be subject to its 1,000 picture limit

Back when Flickr first announced that it would be limiting free accounts to just 1,000 pictures, the company announced an exception: while it would be deleting any pictures on accounts over that number, any Creative Commons licensed photos uploaded before the November 1st, 2018 deadline would be allowed to stay. And today, the company announced that it would be making the policy permanent — all Creative Commons photos will be allowed on Flickr for good, regardless of upload date, even on accounts that otherwise would have surpassed the 1,000 picture limit.

In light of that change, Flickr is also removing the ability to change licenses on photos on the site in bulk, to make it more difficult for users to just hit a button and circumvent the 1,000 picture limit. That’s for good reason, too — the company says it wants users to think about and understand the consequences of making a photo open to use by anyone with Creative Commons licensing before they just flip the switch to avoid the limit. It’s unclear if users already at the 1,000 photo limit will be able to upload new Creative Commons photos past that, but that seems to be what Flickr is implying here.

Additionally, Flickr is adding “In memoriam” accounts to users that have passed away, which will lock the account and preserve all the pictures on it, even for Pro users who would be over the 1,000 picture limit when their subscription inevitably lapses. To that end, the company has put up a page for submitting accounts to be memorialized here.

Lastly, Flickr announced earlier in the month that it will finally be removing the last major vestige of the company’s former Yahoo stewardship — it’s doing away with the mandatory Yahoo login requirement, and will be transitioning existing accounts away from Yahoo over the next few weeks.

https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/8/18256478/flickr-creative-commons-photos-free-1000-picture-limit-exempt