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!