Applying Creative Commons and Plus licenses to your assets

29. March 2025

Table of Contents

Overview Why use rights management? Creating a usage rights license Adding the license to your pictures From the toolbar Through an action Viewing a license Clearing a license from a file

Overview

Learn how to add usage rights to your pictures with Creative Commons or PLUS usage licenses.

Why use rights management?

Using Rights Management you can stamp your pictures with usage rights to control their use. If you're a photographer, you can for instance add a license to pictures you have sold that explains how the buyer is allowed to use and reproduce it.

FotoStation supports rights certificates issued by Creative Commons and PLUS, Picture Licensing Universal System.

Creating a usage rights license

First you will need to create a license. Both PLUS and Creative Commons have license generators on the web that you can use:
PLUS: http://www.useplus.com/pluslicensege...eps/Start.aspx
Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/choose/
You can also access these sites by selecting Attach License on FotoStation's toolbar.
Having completed the online license generator, download the license file in XMP format.
Now import the license in FotoStation: Select Attach License on the toolbar and choose Import License.
Finally, name the license. This is practical if you have many different licenses that you need to keep separate. You can import several licenses into FotoStation and apply them individually.

Adding the license to your pictures

You can add a usage license to your pictures in two ways: By selecting pictures and adding a license directly from the toolbar, and by adding it through one of FotoStation's actions. Whereas adding a license from the toolbar instantly tags the pictures you have selected with the chosen license, you have some additional options when adding a license through an action. Read on below.

Select the files you would like to add a license to and click on Attach License on the toolbar. Then, choose the license you want to add from the list. Your pictures will be updated with new metadata, and a small image marker in the top right corner indicates that a rights license has been added to the file. The Creative Commons license has a different marker from the PLUS one so you can easily tell the difference just by looking at the file.

Through an action

When using an action, you can configure the action with a preset license or let the user choose from the available licenses each time the action is run. If you have not already imported a license you can do so using the Import button, and you can even create a PLUS or Creative Commons license by clicking on the blue links in the Action properties. This will open your web browser and navigate directly to the respective license generators.

Tip: If you're adding a PLUS license to a file through an action that's configured to let the user choose a license each time, you can also add specific licensee information to the files you're tagging, as shown below:

Viewing a license

When a license has been added to a picture, FotoStation shows an image marker in the top right corner of the picture for indication. You can click on the marker to open a separate window with the license information and, assuming you have a working Internet connection, more information about usage rights will be displayed from the Creative Commons or PLUS website.

Clearing a license from a file

FotoStation also makes it possible to remove a license that you have added to a file. Before using this functionality, make sure that you do not inadvertently remove licenses from files that others have licensed to you.

You can only remove a license through an action, specifically the Clear licenses subaction. Keep in mind that this action will clear ALL licenses in the file.