Using Flickr photos to decorate your kid's room

Brian used Flickr to spruce up his son's room:

After sharing your Flickr slideshow hack with my 15-month-old son and loving his reaction, I took it one step further and used the power of Flickr tags to decorate his bedroom. Lately, trucks seem to be the most interesting thing in life for him, so I printed and framed a few (copyrighted, unfortunately, but hopefully the photographers will understand it's all for a good and unprofitable cause) choice photos from the "most interesting" photos tagged with "truck". My son is already raving about the results.

[3/27/06: This post generated a lot of intense discussion around copyright and fair use. Here's a follow-up. -- Ed.]

Technorati Tags: Decorating, Flickr, Home improvement, Parenting

Comments

[Brian]

In case anyone is interested in seeing the actual results, here they are: http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivepress/96056572/

Thanks for posting this, Asha, and keep the great hacks coming (good hacks breed other good hacks, it seems).

[jwp]

this is a great idea, however the use of copyrighted photos probably isn't the best advice you could give. plain and simple it's considered theft. there are plenty of photos on flickr that have creative commons licenses that do not restrict use. have a look at http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ for photos and the different license types.

[Brian]

There has been quite a bit of discussion around the copyright issue in the comments thread on my Flickr photo of my son's room (http://www.flickr.com/photos/olivepress/96056572/), which I have acknowledged and responded to.

Though all the comments are worth reading, I can summarize my own by saying that I will now suggest using this hack with Creative Commons photos only or only after contacting the copyright holder first.

I've sent messages to the owners of the images I've used, with my apologies and explanation, and I don't have much more to say on the topic, except thank you to the more insightful than mean commenters. It's certainly been a learning experience in many ways for me (and for that, I suppose I can even thank the meanies).

[Kelly]

As a student getting her BFA in fine art photograph, I was taken aback by your statement that you used copyrighted images. Though you say it's not harming anyone, photographers must make a living, and by blatently ignoring copyright issues, you are only adding to the struggle for artists to keep doing their work, barely, if even, making their ends meet.
As an advid reader of lifehacker, I'm just saddened by this post.

[Chris]

Urban Outfitters used to have a clear shower curtain with little pockets for storing things like brushes and shampoo. I hung it in my kids room and filled the pockets with illustrations printed from the 'net.