As sites like Flickr and Last.fm move from having early adopters into the mainstream, this issue becomes more important. What isn’t clear is how the moral responsibility should be distributed. Should Flickr provide clearer rules for API use? Should Google index less? Should the people publishing photos take more care in choosing when to mark photos as public and when to mark photos as private? Should developers (like myself) be more cautious in what we allow our applications to do with the API?

I personally agree with pasmateRs (and because of his sheer pragmatism Pisco Bandito): It’s more of a Flickr API issue, and maybe even a Google issue. But as more sites release APIs, questions of ‘When does display or use cross into copyright violation?’ and ‘How can we design systems that give users the most control over how their information is repurposed?’ come to the fore.

Also worth reading

• Notes From the Field: Future of Web Apps Conference
• OAuth Spec 1.0 = More Personal Mashups?
• Lawsuit over web site accessibility for the blind becomes class action