Michael Zhang has published "500px Nukes 1M+ Creative Commons Photos" in PetaPixel.
Here's an excerpt:
But overnight, all of the CC photos that have been uploaded since 2012 have been nuked from 500px. Users can no longer choose a CC license during uploading, search for CC photos, or download them.
Jason Scott reports on Twitter that the photos have been archived in the Internet Archives' Wayback Machine:
3 terabytes of Creative Commons photos going into the Wayback machine thanks to the efforts of dozens of volunteers slamming from NO warning and going for 48 hours straight. Amazing work, everyone. It's going to take a while to understand exactly what we got.
Note that the Wayback Machine is only searchable by site URL.
The Creative Commons photos have not been deleted; however, the Creative Commons license has been. Consequently, the user has no way to know about the existing Creative Commons licensing terms. On logon today, 500px gives the user the option of opting out of commercial distribution by Getty Images.
See also: "500px Photo Site Abandons Freely Shareable Images with Commercialization Push."
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