By @mhawksey

Pitch for out-of-hours project: Develop a Chrome extension to include Creative Commons license in embed code

Update: Looking at OpenAttribute which looks like it does some of this. I’ll probably spend my time on something different instead 

Right now it feels like I’m getting more ideas than time to develop them. So that I don’t waste more time with ill thought out ideas like ‘spreadembed’ (what was I thinking ;), this time instead of disappearing into my creative dark space I thought I would pitch my idea here and if there is enough interest give it priority over my long list of other things to do. So here’s the pitch:

Chrome extension to include Creative Commons license in embed code

More services like YouTube, Flickr and Slideshare are giving people the option to include a Creative Commons license with their work. This is great because it means it’s easier for people to reuse the work and also it raises the profile of releasing work under Creative Commons (i.e. every time you see a CC icon you are advertising a different way to share your work).

The problem

The problem is often when you use these services the sites terms and conditions like:

by submitting Content to YouTube, you hereby grant YouTube a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the Content in connection with the Service and YouTube’s (and its successors’ and affiliates’) business, including without limitation for promoting and redistributing part or all of the Service (and derivative works thereof) in any media formats and through any media channels. YouTube Terms Section 6.C

aka ‘we can use your content how we like’, which often includes not including any CC license (if used) in the embed code. This has resulted in projects like Xpert Attribution tool and ImageCodr which provide a way for people to grab embed content with the CC attribution as shown below:


Embedded image from Flickr


Embedded image from Flickr using Xpert

Xpert and ImageCodr are great tools but they rely on you going to their site to get the attributed embed code.

The solution – guerrilla CC embed

A better solution would of course be the host service doing this at source but this thread on Flickr is typical in terms of this being a very low priority if at all. My idea (and it may have been done before – if so leave a note to put me out of my misery) is to develop a browser extension or bookmarklet that when you are getting the embed code from the source site (Flickr, YouTube and Slideshare would be my starters) it automatically modifies the existing code it to include Creative Commons license and attribution.

For example, here’s how the YouTube embed code looks now:

   

But with my magic black box users would automatically get something like:

So to recap your browsing for a video/image/presentation, find one you like and click on the websites embed button. Doing so appends and CC attribution to the embed.

So what do you think, is this a worthwhile project for me to spend my free time on? Would you be willing to help (it could be anything from code, promotion or testing)?

Over to you 😉

Exit mobile version