Getty ends agreement with Flickr

Wow, more stock photographer news today! Getty is ending its 5+ year agreement with Flickr, which allowed them to invite flickr users to submit images from their Flickr stream to the Getty repository. I think Getty had pulled in close to half a million flickr images in that time.

Images they pulled in will still have the same arrangement with the contributor, but the most interesting part is (ex-flickr) contributors can now add images directly to Getty (to be screened), where as before they would have to wait for an invite. I think this is a good move, as many photographers on flickr who were contributing to Getty would have many images that were over looked and this will give them a chance now to add them.

Its also interesting that this has happened on the back of the "free for non-commercial use" news that Getty released last week, were they hoping to lose a number of contributors, as in my next paragraph?

But I can also see this causing Getty a headache - and in the long run many photographers - will Getty get swamped with mundane, up there a million times already, of no use images? Will this slow getting acceptable images up there? Will Getty back out of this idea in a few months when they can't handle the load.....

The statement from Getty:

Today we are announcing that we provided notice to terminate our existing agreement with Flickr. Our original agreement reached its end, and while we continue to be open to working with Yahoo!/Flickr, we have not agreed to a new agreement at this time.

Your status as a contributor to Getty Images is unchanged by this news. Your current agreement with Getty Images remains the same and agreements will NOT be terminated by us as a result of this change, no matter how few images you have on gettyimages.com.

For the last 5 years we’ve been very proud to provide a global platform for the work of Flickr artists, celebrating their originality and talent with our customers around the world. Those of us who are directly involved with the Flickr collection have thoroughly enjoyed and been inspired by our experience working within the Flickr community. Built to represent the best in authentic, spontaneous photography selected through social sharing, Getty Image’s Flickr collection has grown to be a tremendous success.  

We have never been more committed than we are now to expanding on what we’ve started together.

What Will Change? Here are some highlights—with details to follow in the coming days and weeks: 

• Welcome to Moment:  The Flickr Collection will form the basis of a new house collection called Moment.
• Moment Mobile: Our new Moment-Mobile App provides another way for you to participate by submitting images shot on your mobile device. All Flickr collection contributors will be invited. (iOs only for now-Andriod to come). We are very pleased with the launch and early results from our Moment App, which is now being used by 3,500 contributors from 100 countries who have so far have submitted more than 30,000 images through the app. Curators: Flickr curators will continue and expand their role in identifying the best social content from a wider range of sources which, alongside our Moment App, will further grow our Moment collections.
• The Upload Portal you are already familiar with will be updated to accommodate a slightly different workflow (see below) but your log-in will remain the same.
• You will be in control. Since we will not be using the systems built for the Flickr partnership, we will no longer be searching and browsing through photostreams or Artist Picks looking for images and inviting them.  Instead, you will be using the same procedure as all our other Getty and iStock contributors and submitting full-sized, captioned and released images to us for review and selection.
• Support: Communication and daily guidance will continue via our GettyImages Contributor Community website and forum. We will be sending out a welcome e-mail containing the URL and your log-in credentials. These emails will begin shortly and continue over the next few weeks until everyone is covered.
• Creative Research: You will have access to our proprietary research briefs on an ongoing basis.
• Range of Products: You will have access to be reviewed for submissions to our other collections where appropriate including editorial, video, andPhotos.com -- our new platform for wall décor, print sales, and more.
• What should you do? Please watch for more news and information in our GettyImages Contributors Group on Flickr and watch for important emails.
• Check your Contact information! Please make sure the e-mail address and other contact information we have for you is up to date so we can include you in our communications. 

You can do this by logging in to the Upload Portal at https://contribute.gettyimages.com  and clicking on “Update your profile” in the “Account Management” section. 

Thanks you for all of your wonderful images and support over the past five years! We look forward to moving ahead with Moment, and with each and every one of you.

The Getty Images Creative Team

Getty fights copyright infringement by making 35 million stock images free

Getty Images is redefining the stock photography business model, by changing how 35 million of their (or your!) images can be licensed; making them free for non-commercial use. So I guess this is primarily aimed at bloggers, so hopefully we can expect to see our images legitimately popping up on WordPress, BlogSpot and whatever the next one will be!

When you find the image on Getty you have the embed option as below.

I suppose Getty are adapting to how the internet works. Are they too late to make this change? If the music industry had brought out digital business models quicker, would they have combatted piracy and the pretty much death of the CD, were the likes of Spotify too late? While not giving stuff away for free Netflix is probably the best example of a business model in the movie/TV area that are trying to keep up with the internet and digital age, they are one of the most successful online companies out there and their user count grows constantly. All digital offerings need to change and adapt to the times.

My photographs can be found on Flickr and if wanted licensed through Getty, or found on Getty directly. Now as has had happened many times before, people/companies have pulled the image directly off Flickr or done a reverse search on the Getty image and found the other source on Flickr. No money to Getty, no money to me. Now obviously this wont stop companies from stealing them as they wont embed and the embed license isn't offered to them anyway, but maybe bloggers will use the embed method rather than steal, that way its kind of advertising for Getty/your image.

How an embedded image looks.

I don't sell many images through Getty, as the title says, there are 35 million images in their collection, so its highly unlikely (unless you manage a one off!) someone will license my image when theres hundreds, if not thousands of similar ones, so usually its down to luck. Like my previous point, this could result in a potential sale when your image is seen on the blog that links out to the source on Getty.

I do see many photographers being outraged and cancelling their contract with Getty, but is this such a bad idea? Isn't an officially embedded image better than a stolen one where you wouldn't have gotten a sale anyway? 

I guess the real question is will this take on, will bloggers embed rather than steal, will other stock sources look at using the same or similar model.....the coming months will be interesting.

Selling your photos on stock sites

A couple of years ago Getty partnered up with Flickr to License users images, I was invited to sign up and over a couple of years contributed a couple dozen photos for inclusion on the Getty website. 

Theres a lot of debate particularly among amateur photographers on whether or not to sell their photos on stock websites, most of the complaining seems to be pointed towards the licensing split, where the photographer gets 20-30% depending on the licensing type the buyer takes out. Now I don't have a problem with that, the licensing site is where most people go to find their images, I did it many moons ago in my website building days. 

They also host the image, good keywords, categorised, search engine, and all sizes on offer for the different needs, and have a very good billing structure in place. They also try and find and bill companies who are using (your) images without paying for it. So I'm ok with my 20-30%, its better than 0% of nothing!

But I have to admit this one did hurt! I got a whopping $5.70 for my family silhouette to be used on the History Channel website! I suppose I'm lucky they didn't just take it for free like an ever growing list of companies have and continue to do. Its licensing models and how prices can vary vastly I guess I have the problem with, but hey thats how it goes!

But that won't stop me from allowing the images to be licensed, I know no one knows its my image when it gets used somewhere, but its still nice to see them out there and not just lingering on Flickr or Facebook. I never took up photography to make money, I always wanted to keep it as a hobby, I don't have the back or knees to be taking photos at a wedding all day anyway! 

One day all the $5 will add up and can go to getting a new flash card or something!