Photo by Atwater Village Newbie
When Candy Spelling put her Holmby Hills house on the market last week, a Flickr user saw his page views go through the roof. It just so happened that an LA photographer, who goes by Atwater Village Newbie (and runs a local blog by the same name), had been taking a helicopter tour about a year ago and spotted the extravagant mansion (also known as the “Spelling Manor” in pretentious-speak). He thought it’d make for a good photo. “The sheer size of the house caught my eye, of course, as did the idea of getting a rare peek into the backyards of the rich and famous,” he says.
It wasn’t until a fellow Flickr user commented that the house looked to be the Spelling mansion that AVN knew what an interesting shot he indeed had. With the real estate listing announcement, AVN released many of the rights of the photo under Creative Commons to encourage people to use it and link back to his work. The Flickr photo went from 9,000 views on the day of the announcement, March 25, to 39,000 views on March 29. About a third of the views came from this Daily Telegraph article out of Australia.
And if you’re interested in the Spelling abode, the most expensive residence in the U.S., it’s going for $150 million. Bad economy? Not for some!
boywithgrenade.org 
creative commons?
Spelling is selling the house for 150M and the realty agency could’ve / would’ve paid as much as 10K for such a shot but instead they get it for nothing.
what a shame!
Angelo, is that an offer to get me in touch with Candy Spelling? What’s your percentage cut on the deal…
well more like the realty agency handling the sale and I wish I had the power
unfortunately you’ve given the image away so it’s fair game to anyone and everyone.
Exactly. I set the rights so anyone and everyone can and could use the image. Has Spelling or Spelling’s realty agency actually used the photo, to your knowledge? Would anything preclude them from paying me for it anyway? And why does this even bother you?