But using Creative Commons is not a simple task. You have to first find the work you want to use, resize it so that it fits in your blog and then provide proper attribution, something that is rarely done correctly.

By the time all of this is done, many prefer to use the stock.xchng or similar sites to avoid these issues. However, a new WordPress plugin, Photo Dropper, seeks to make life easier for those wanting to use Creative Commons images. The plugin automates the entire process of using a CC-licensed image, including the scaling and attribution.

The process is so simple that it is even easier than using WordPress’ built-in media uploader and takes only a few seconds to complete. It could easily be the best thing to happen to image-hungry bloggers and to CC-loving artists in a very long time.

How it Works

The first step is using Photo Dropper is to install the WordPress plugin. This is a process that every WordPress user should be familiar with, save those using a free WordPress.com account, but directions are also provided on the Photo Dropper site if needed.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you first have to edit the options for the plugin. The options themselves are very straightforward, consisting of only five things, setting the number of images displayed, selecting whether to only search for ones available for commercial use, sorting by “most interesting” and adding HTML code before and after the insert.

Once you’ve set your options, the interface appears on your write screen below your editor.

As shown above, it allows you to search for a keyword you are interested in, such as “pirate” in this case.You hit search and it pulls up a thumbnail gallery of applicable images.

Below each image is a series of options. The first pops the image out full size in a new window, making it easier to view. The other letters represent “small”, “medium” and “large” and generate the code to insert the image into your post.

For example, if you click “Medium” on one of the images, you get a new image in your post that looks like this:

photo credit: Brittany G

As you can see, the image is sized correctly for the blog and contains the attribution directly below the image, rather than at the footer of the post. The attribution is formatted well and is compliant with both Flickr and Creative Commons requirements.

All totaled, Photo Dropper makes it possible, with just two clicks of the mouse, to put in legal free images into any of your blog posts or pages. All by working with the well-documented Flickr API.

Why this is Great

The beauty behind this service goes well beyond just bloggers obtaining free images for their site. Rather, this also helps content creators, specifically photographers that post their work on Flickr and license it under a Creative Commons License.

As I’ve talked about before, one of the biggest issues with Creative Commons is that the license is very rarely followed to the letter. This plugin, however, ensures that the photo is attributed correctly and in the proper manner, including links back to the creator and the image itself, all of which are search-engine friendly.

By making it easy for bloggers to do not just the right thing, but also the legal one, the plugin encourages the behavior and will cause more bloggers to follow the letter of the license. This, in turn, should result in more bloggers taking advantage of CC-licensed images and in more links and recognition for CC artists.

Limitations

Though the plugin, overall, is a great tool, it has its share of limitations as well.

1. Only Supports Flickr: Though Flickr is a great repository of CC-licensed artwork, it is not the only one on the Web. Though Flickr was a great choice to start with, it would be nice to see other sites added in the future.
2. Limited Control: Outside of adding HTML before and after the image, you have very little control over how it displays. This can make it difficult to fit into your site without some effort.
3. Difficult Searching: The search feature is great if you find what you’re looking for almost immediately. Otherwise, going through a large number of images can be a pain. You practically are forced to change the number of thumbnails before use and more advanced search tools would make a big difference.
4. WordPress-Only: Currently Photo Dropper exists only as a WordPress plugin, meaning those that use other platforms, or even WordPress.com, are not able to take advantage of it. Plugins for other platforms as well as a Web-based version that generates the code for easy copy/paste for those who can’t use plugins would also be a huge help.
5. Slowness: This is an issue with Flickr, not Photo Dropper, but sometimes search can be very sluggish. The Flickr API is not very quick and, when combined with the searching issues, can make for a long search time.

However, the negative aspects, for the most part, are significantly outweighed by the positive aspects. Since the plugin is free, it makes sense to install it and see if it works for you. If it doesn’t, simply deactivate the plugin and move on; if it does, you may have easy access to a large number of images that are free for you to license.

Conclusions

I try to cover legal alternatives because the more that are available and the easier they are to use, the fewer excuses that plagiarists and scrapers have. Every legal alternative is another weapon against content theft and a way for people to support and help content creators.

Personally, I am very excited about this service. Though it has flaws, it solves at least two of the major problems with Creative Commons, namely the issues with providing proper attribution and formatting, and it makes great headway into solving the issue of finding good work to use.

Most likely, if you watch this site, you’ll see a couple of Photo Dropper images in various articles as time goes on. Though I favor my own screenshots to illustrate the articles I write, in cases where that is not appropriate, I may use Photo Dropper to add images in as fitting.

All in all, Photo Dropper is a great tool that I look forward to using as needed. It may not make regular appearances on the site, but I do have a feeling you will see it again…

Originally created by Cal Evans and licensed under the GPL version 2.0. The plugin automatically submits posts created in WordPress to be fingerprinted, have their ESN generated an then place the information in the post.

This site as well as Mike Kavis’ blog on itToobox both use the plugin with great success.

The plugin is in need of some updates and it appears that Evans has moved on to other projects. I attempted to email him about this but have not received a reply. Among the requested improvements are the following:

• Creation of ESN after permalink has been created so that the permalink can be placed into the ESN information.
• Fixes to the display of the Numly graphic so that tracking will work in Numly
• More advanced options to give greater flexibility in how the plugin submits information.

If anyone is interested, feel free to contact Chris Matthieu and let him know. He can provide you with information about the Numly API (I couldn’t locate the documentation) and help you get started.

Any and all assistance here would be greatly appreciated.

My apologies to everyone for the limited posting this week. I am still very deep in my house (opening night is Saturday) and things will continue to be sparse here for a few more days. Thank you very much for your patience.

Currently, Jeremy Steele and Patrick are tied for first at ten a piece, however, it is almost certainly something that will fluctuate wildly.

I wanted to do something to give back to the people that help make the discussion on this site great and encourage others to jump in.

Please let me know what you think of the new feature. To do that, I highly recommend leaving a comment.

(Note: This feature wouldn’t have been practical without the reCAPTCHA plugin keeping the spam bots at bay, my thanks goes to them for their work!)

I took the time today and installed the plugin here on my feed and am, so far, loving it. It is a very powerful plugin and seems to do everything that it advertises. Though I am not using the IP identification tool due to my use of FeedBurner, I am using it to place a small copyright notice and the digital fingerprint.

It also corrects other feed-related issues, such as WordPress artificially truncating entries that use the “MORE” tag, and adds the ability to insert comments and related posts into the feed.

The only frustration I’ve had is that you need to be careful to save your options before you update the preview, otherwise, you will likely lose all of your work.

Beyond that, if it works correctly with this post, it is a powerful plugin that combines functionality that was once spread across nearly a half dozen plugins.

I would encourage every WordPress using that is running their own installation to look at getting it.

Update: I checked the output from this feed after I published the post and it caused an error with the feed, removing all paragraph breaks in the post itself. I’m going to contact the creator of the plugin and see if this is a problem he is aware of.

The goal is to not simply help bloggers discover if and where their content is being scraped, but also give them information to help them track down the scraper and, when used in conjunction with plugins such as Antileech, stop the infringement outright.

It is a potentially exciting plugin that could replace a other extensions that are currently available, effectively combining the functionality of at least two indispensable plugins into one, and holds a lot of potential to help WordPress bloggers stop infringement and prevent spam bloggers from taking their content.

How it Works

Copyfeed is something of a swiss army knife when it comes to extending your feed. It has several different functions, many of which are already available.

First, the plugin can add a digital fingerprint to the plugin and provides easy links to search for copies of your work. In that regard, it works a great deal like MaxPower’s Digital Fingerprint Plugin and can serve much of the same purpose.

Second, the plugin adds a customized feed copyright notice, similar to Angsuman’s Feed Copyrighter Plugin. This plugin, however, takes it a step farther making it easier to add your custom copyright information and then and even making it possible to add HTML to the footer.

However, where the plugin goes above and beyond the currently available tools is by adding the ability to include the IP address of the feed reader in the feed itself. This means that, if the feed is scraped, the scraper will also be publishing the IP address of the computer they used to scrape the feed, making it very easy to either block the address, or input it into Antileech for redirection.

Finally, Copyfeed also offers the ability to whitelist certain domains from seeing the above information. This means that it is would be possible to protect your regular feed, but allow BlogBurst or another desired syndication service to bypass that content without having to point them to a separate feed.

It’s a very powerful set of features that, when combined with Antileech, can provide almost total protection of the feed from scrapers and spammers. All of this also says nothing about the other attributes that Copyfeed can add, including comments and related posts, that have nothing to do with content theft preventions.

Some Problems

However, this isn’t to say that the plugin is perfect, there are several issues with it that may stop it, in some cases at least, from being ready for full use.

First off, both the plugin and the site are currently only available in German. Though you can use tools to translate the site, the plugin administration panel rests in the admin area of the WordPress install and can’t be easily viewed by such tools.

Fortunately, Bueltge has promised to include a translated version of the plugin with his next release, along with “more features” but it has not been released as of this writing.

Second, it is uncertain how legitimate readers will feel about having their IP address printed on their feed’s entries. Some, especially those who are unaware of how the Internet works and what an IP address really is, might cite privacy concerns. Others, especially those who use Web-based readers, might be confused as the IP address would not be theirs, but that of the site they read the feeds on.

It would be up to the user of the feed to explain these issues if they chose to use that feature.

Finally, aspects of the plugin, obviously, will not work well with FeedBurner. Though the copyright notice and the digital fingerprint will both work correctly, the IP feature will not. The plugin would just report the IP address of FeedBurner and not the person reusing the feed, making it useless in that case.

However, there are many people that will still likely find the plugin very useful and many more will do so once the plugin has been translated into other languages.

Conclusions

All in all, this plugin is an impressive effort to stop feed scraping and will almost certainly become an essential tool once translations of it are offered. In fact, it is possible with just a few extra features that it could become something of a one-stop shop for battling feed scrapers in WordPress, becoming almost the only plugin needed.

However, until the translated versions are released, all most of us can do is sit and wait in anticipation for the tool to become available.

It seems almost certain that this plugin, for many WordPress users, will be a nice step forward in protecting their feed. Hopefully, once I am able to use it, it will live up to those expectations.

In the meantime, I’d be very interested in hearing comments from those who are using Copyfeed on their sites. I’d love to hear how it is working out for you.