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

by Fatema Patrawala on March 11, 2019

On November 1st, 2018 Flickr announced that they would be limiting free accounts to just 1,000 pictures. But it recently made an exception: that it would be deleting any pictures on accounts over that number, and any Creative Commons licensed photos uploaded before the November 1st, 2018 deadline would be allowed to stay. Last Friday, the company made 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 this change, Flickr also removed the ability to change licenses on photos on the site in bulk. This makes it 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.

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. It is available for Pro users too who would be over the 1,000 picture limit when their subscription inevitably lapses. For this Flickr has put up a page to submit accounts which can be memorialized. Upon receiving a request on the page they evaluate the account if it qualifies to be memorialized. And then the account’s username will be updated to reflect the “in memoriam” status and login for the account will be locked to prevent anyone from signing in.

Lastly, Flickr also announced that it will finally be removing the last major vestige of the company’s former Yahoo stewardship. They have decided to to do away with the mandatory Yahoo login requirement, and will also transition existing accounts away from Yahoo over the next few weeks.