# Viewfinder and Copyright

Questions and answers about the way in which Viewfinder interacts with your photos on Flickr.

### Is Viewfinder letting people steal my images?

Viewfinder's overarching rule is "no more or less restrictive than a web browser". If your images can be downloaded by someone not logged into the Flickr site, they can be downloaded through Viewfinder. Viewfinder obeys the settings you have applied to your images and your Flickr account.

For more information on controlling downloading, please see the Flickr FAQ entry: How can I stop people from downloading my photos?

A simple way to check is to log out of the Flickr website and try to download an image in your web browser. If you cannot, Viewfinder users will also be prevented from downloading.

### Will my images appear in Viewfinder?

Yes, unless you have opted out of making your images publicly searchable. If you have disabled downloading, your images may still appear in Viewfinder, but they will not be downloadable.

You can remove your entire account from site-wide search by visiting the Hiding from Search page when logged into Flickr.

### Does Viewfinder create Orphan Works?

So-called 'orphan works' are digital images which contain no information about who created them or where they came from. Viewfinder takes a number of steps to prevent this problem.

Firstly, Viewfinder downloads the original size from Flickr, which preserves the metadata that you applied before you uploaded the image to Flickr.

Secondly, when possible, Viewfinder adds additional information to the IPTC metadata properties to indicate where the image originated. Viewfinder sets the IPTC Source field to the URL of the image's Flickr page, sets the IPTC Copyright Notice to the license set on Flickr and the IPTC Originating Program to "Viewfinder".

Viewfinder does not replace any existing information in these fields if it exists.

### Can Viewfinder be used to access adult images?

Viewfinder operates with the same restrictions as a web user who is not logged into Flickr. By policy, Flickr restricts these 'un-authenticated' searches to only find 'safe' images. For more information, please see the Filters FAQ on Flickr.

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