What is a Commercial Use License?

Can I use an image made available under a Creative Commons license for commercial purposes even though it depicts a building that is required to have property release?

• I need images of tourist buildings for commercial purposes and buy them on shutterstock. But buildings that require Property Release for image use come as editorial on shutterstock which disallows using an image for commercial purposes. So I am thinking if I can get images of builings with Property Release requirement from Flickr or Wiki Commons and use them for commercial purposes.

• Answer:

  I should make clear ahead of time that I'm not a lawyer in any jurisdiction, so my answer is best taken as idle speculation -- you'll need to talk to a qualified lawyer to get a definitive answer. That said, here's how I see it: Let me start by pointing out some significant gaps in what you've told us -- I can make some assumptions, but let's lay out some of the things you'll probably need to answer before you have a definite answer: Is the "Property Release" you refer to a release from copyright, or some other intellectual property right? (Almost certainly copyright -- but I'm not familiar with this kind of property release so I have to ask.) Is it about the copyright held by the building's creator(s), and/or the copyright held by the photographer? What country are the buildings in? What country are you publishing the photos in? As for #2, if it's about the photographer's copyright, you should be fine using anything at all from Wikimedia Commons, or anything on Flickr labeled for commercial reuse. Everything on Wikimedia should either be in the Public Domain, or have a license where the photographer explicitly says you can use it for commercial purposes (unless something has slipped through). You will almost certainly have to provide attribution to the photographer -- you should read the license. Each license you find on Wikimedia Commons comes with a "deed" like the one below, which is a summary designed to be super easy to read; but you should also click through to the actual license. Creativve Commons licenses are of course written in legal jargon, but every effort has been made to keep them as simple and readable as possible; you should take advantage of that. If the copyright involved is that of the building creator, it can be a little complicated -- but it's likely you are fine. The principle involved is called "Freedom of Panorama" (FoP). In some countries, you have FoP with regard to buildings; you can take a photo of any building without worrying about the rights of the architect etc. In others, you don't. Fortunately, Wikimedia Commons has an incredibly detailed rundown and summary of FoP laws in various countries. So look up your country here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:FOP