Background information

Adam Curry, a former MTV VJ and one of the pioneers of podcasting, published photos onto his Flickr account under a BY-NC-SA 2.0 license. A Dutch tabloid reprinted four of the photos in a story about the Curry family. Curry sued the tabloid for violating his privacy rights and for copyright infringement.

Case summary

Curry argued that the tabloid violated the BY-NC-SA license by using the photos in a commercial magazine and by not including proper attribution to the CC license. The tabloid argued that it thought the photos could be taken and used because they were marked as "public" on Flickr. It also argued that in terms of compensation, the photos had no value because they were available for anyone to view online. On March 9, 2006, the Dutch court held that the tabloid had violated the CC license on the images by failing to attach a notice about the license and for using the images in a commercial magazine. However, the court did not award damages to the plaintiff because they could not prove harm. The court held that defendant could not use any of the photos from Flickr in the future unless they comply with the terms of the CC license or with permission from the plaintiff.