DISQUS

The Cosmic Tap: flickR works against photographers by stripping EXIF data

  • Håkan Dahlström · 10 months ago
    Good article. I know about the problem but never really thought about it until now.
  • jason2008 · 10 months ago
    This will be a serious undertaking for FlickR to embed the original data from all of the the uploads. The data is most likely not filed conveniently, if at all. I have the feeling that FlickR will close before taking this on, but it is something that they must do to protect the works and allow the photo data to remain behind the image.

    Another option would be to begin this undertaking with all the Pro account first. The Pro accounts are usually the most serious of photographers but I have seen many serious and excellent photographers with free accounts also.
  • Anthony Citrano · 10 months ago
    the data for the images is there if it was in the original image - it's on the "meta" page for each image (for both Pro and non-Pro accounts, from what I can see).

    i posted a brief update in the article itself, and will update as I know more....
  • jason2008 · 10 months ago
    Oh I misunderstood, I thought you said FlickR removed that data. I see so it's only removed when users download the photo.

    Your brother Jay
  • Anthony Citrano · 10 months ago
    Ha I didn't know it was you. Yeah, basically, they keep it, but they strip it out of the resized images. So if someone downloads one of the resized versions, the metadata is gone.
  • Paula · 10 months ago
    This is rather serious, since it is an easy thing to keep the creator exif data. Makes you wonder WHY they find if necessary to strip it, since I can upload tags from my exif data easily...
  • carloslorenzo · 10 months ago
    I have a pro account and never stopped to think of this event. Thanks for pointing that out. Anything that can be done to keep the photographer's rights and the technical data behind the image is of course important and worth claiming for.