What is Web2.o? There is certainly a lot of buzz on the internet about it.

Wikipedia.org describes it as, “Proponents of the Web 2.0 approach believe that Web usage is increasingly oriented toward interaction and rudimentary social networks…”
Dale Dougherty coined the term “Web 2.0. He gave examples — “DoubleClick was Web 1.0; Google AdSense is Web 2.0. Ofoto is Web 1.0; Flickr is Web 2.0.”

So you would think.

Ludicorp is the company that developed Flickr which was purchased by Yahoo back on March 20th, 2005. Stewart Butterfield the President of Ludicorp moved down to California and became a Yahoo employee.

On the website Corante.com Stewart posted an essay on Social Networking (a portion of Web2.0). One would think that he is a proponent of social networking.

Wikipedia.org defines a social network as, “a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds.”

The entire social network allows for multiple degrees of separation, yet still being connected as a whole.

This leads me to where I am at now. FlickrLicio.us, a website that I started and after talking with the owner, this post will be cross posted over there, has seemingly been blocked by Flickr/Yahoo. The site operates on the basis that Flickr “makes it possible to post images hosted on Flickr to outside websites. This use is accepted (and even encouraged!). However, pages on other websites which display images hosted on flickr.com must provide a link back to Flickr from each photo to its photo page on Flickr.” - Per the Flickr TOS.

The nature of the site is and shouldn’t be the matter at hand. The site operates under full compliance of the Flickr TOS. I have personally emailed with Butterfield and Heather Champ about the site. Heather asked me to remove any posts that contain links back to the pictures hosted on Flickr if the owner of the photo asks me to do so.

I and the current owner, have complied with every single request that has come in to remove a post that someone requests be removed.

WHY? Because they think social networking and the Web 2.0 doesn’t apply to everyone? Doesn’t that statement go against everything the social engineering movement is trying to move towards? Censorship based on personal opinion?

What the site is trying to do is the same thing that any person might want. Combing thru to find the content geared to a specific audience. On Flickr there are (and I am not aware of the exact numbers) but seemingly thousands of pictures posted daily to the site. If you wanted only photos of houses you could search for under the tag “houses” on Flickr, but you certainly won’t find all of the results.

FlickrLicio.us does the grunt work for you. The site searches all of the popular tags for the specific content a viewer might want based on FlickrLicio.us’ specific genre the site caters to. FlickrLicio.us doesn’t stop there. The site also browses hundreds of photo groups as well as specific members photo pages that it as accumulated as having content geared to it’s genre.

It is a tool for public consumption of a specific genre of content hosted on Flickr. So why shut down a tool? Would they shut down a site that combs thru for pictures of houses?

How about sites that do EXACTLY the same thing as FlickrLicio.us? Wouldn’t Flickr want to block them from displaying pictures as well? They aren’t though. WHY FLICKRLICIO.US?

For evidence of this check FlickrBabes, FlickrChicks, FlickrBooty, and ChicksnBreasts. They all still have photos displayed on their sites. They provide the same service as FlickrLicio.us does, but have not mastered the precision and are not covering a scope as wide as FlickrLicio.us is.

With all of the subdomains on FlickrLicio.us, there have been over 15,000 photos displayed, which the competition cannot even come close to matching, and FlickrLicio.us wasn’t first to the plate on this. FlickrLicio.us is simply the best service for finding pictures of this specific genre from Flickr on the entire internet.

Outrage? Of course. Why would they choose to target the site? This site and it’s method was a labor of love so to say of mine. I noticed a need and I filled it.

Copyright is controlled by the poster of the picture. If they delete the photo from Flickr, it’s not on FlickrLicio.us. If they contact FlickrLicio.us, they remove the post. The picture NEVER is copied off of Flickr. They are simply hyperlinked via Flickr’s “Blog This” service….which as previously mentioned…they encourage.

Okay so what about Non-Comercial uses? Are there ads on FlickrLicio.us? Yep! Are there ads on every other site that offers the same type service? YEP! Does nearly every single blog out there that posts pictures from Flickr have at least some Google Ads? YEP! Are they going to go after every single person who is posting Flickr pictures that has ads on it? It would be impossible.

FlickrLicio.us has NEVER made a single cent in profit. The ads that are on the site have not yielded a single cent in a check or deposit for the owner of the site. How can it be a commercial site if it hasn’t made a single cent, and isn’t selling anything from the site?

Censorship seems to be the card that is being played. Isn’t the internet about everyone having a voice and being able to express them however they want to?

Do you think Google will simply shut down access to it’s Google Maps simply because someone is using it in a way they don’t necessarily agree with? I am sorry, but I never read anywhere in the API that if they don’t like it then they will shut your access down.

Companies publish API’s to get other people to develop it in ways they would of never thought of. Why shut these guys down when it in a way that morally they might not agree with? Why not shut down ALL of the sites doing this, not just one?

The owner of the site has sent emails to Stewart and Heather as well as Caterina Fake (VP Marketing & Community at Ludicorp) addressing the concerns it has. There has not been any reply to a single piece of communication.

So why is Flickr saying they want Web 2.0 and social networking, but shutting down access to people who try to socially network with them?

If you don’t agree with censorship, and have something to say about Flickr/Yahoo’s double standard please comment or send feedback to the following (Please keep in mind that the content shouldn’t be the issue. Censorship in any form on the internet is wrong.):

Stewart Butterfield:
Website: http://www.sylloge.com
Flickr photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stewart/

Heather Champ:

Caterina Fake:

For Ludicorp Press Enquiries
Amy Bessette
Phone: 415-321-1873