Smithsonian persmissions

Does anyone know if LT already has permission to use photos from the Smithsonian?

They've just uploaded some pictures to their Flickr Commons photostream of some currently photo-less authors, but per their Terms of Use, the Smithsonian requires written permission for commercial use.

http://www.flickr.com/commons/usage/

Anything they put in Flickr Commons can be used.

That's the page that led me to the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. The Flickr Commons page says:

"TO REVIEW THE EXPLICIT RIGHTS STATEMENT FOR ANY IMAGE, PLEASE CLICK ON THE RELEVANT LINK UNDER "PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS"

The Smithsonian goes on to state:

You may not use the Content for commercial purposes. This means that you may not sell the Content or sell materials, products or services that use and incorporate the Content, nor may you use the Content to promote or advertise products or services. If you wish to use the Content for any purpose beyond the permitted uses, such as a commercial use or publication (except as may be permitted by fair use under the copyright law), you must obtain prior written permission from the Smithsonian (or other owner of the Content as applicable).

The explicit rights statement is meant for institutions to disclaim their knowledge of other third party copyrights. The Smithsonian can't go after you for stuff put into Flickr Commons. Other groups possibly could, but it's unlikely.

Also to add: lilithcat has uploaded Smithsonian Flickr Commons images, and she's the most hard-core of any of us. (Her assessment could be wrong, of course.)

Basically, if the Smithsonian goes to court for damages for images they put into Flickr Commons, they'll get tossed for because they allowed use of the images by participating. Further use of the images may be stopped, but they'll have a hard time collecting anything because you trusted that they meant what they said when they signed up.