Thanks for the correction on the use of private images. I can see where I was mistaken and will correct this article shortly.

I admit to being a bit simple with the print option, but I was thinking more of people like my mother, who is considering posting some of her paintings and images of her crafts on the Web. The option may be clear to Flickr users but to outsiders and newcomers who aren’t familiar with the system, the term “print” has a different meaning. It might be nitpicky, but I felt it worth mentioning.

I hadn’t thought about the use of the term “No License” when selecting the license for your image, you are right that it is VERY confusing and I can understand why you get those comments. I agree that “No CC License” or just simply saying “All Rights Reserved” would be better. “No License” is about the WORST thing one can say there.

In the end, what’s important to me is not that my solution is the best, but that these issues get addressed and quick. I’ll admit that my system has flaws, especially since it came from someone familiar with licensing, but I hope that it was a step in the right direction.

I hope that others, such as yourself, can take it even farther, that’s why I put it out there…

One correction in your overview of the options – hiding your photostream from site-wide searches on flickr.com does not make your photos private, they are still accessible by everyone who visits your photostream or through the group pools in which the photo is posted (or by typing the URL of the photo directly in the browser). A “private image” on Flickr means an image accessible only by its owner, when logged in.

I agree the account pages are quite overloaded with options that seem to overlap each other and you are right that many of them were introduced piece by piece but I’m not quite sure it would be a good idea to reduce and organize them in the way you suggest

Also, the “Print” option for me is clear enough because I am aware it’s about using a service, not my own printer. It is useful and it also appears in photo set pages, where you are able to order books, albums, etc. It is not meant as a link to your own printer because hopefully most people know how to print a photo this way.

Of course, I’ve been using Flickr for a lot of time and there is a chance my experience skews my judgment about how clear those guidelines are but for me they are clear enough.

The only thing I find really misleading is the option list for choosing a license where ARR is explained as “No license” (probably they mean “No CC License”). This is absolutely misleading. Most of my images have a CC license attached but on some of the few which are ARR I’ve received comments from users like “Put a license to this photo if you don’t want it to be stolen by someone.”