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University of Wisconsin–Madison

Getty Images changes the game by allowing free non-commercial use of some 35 million images

Reporting for the British Journal of Photography, Olivier Laurent details how Getty Images is introducing a game-changing policy that allows free non-commercial use for a large portion of its digital photography library:

The controversial move is set to draw professional photographers’ ire at a time when the stock photography market is marred by low prices and under attack from new mobile photography players. Yet, Getty Images defends the move, arguing that it’s not strong enough to control how the Internet has developed and, with it, users’ online behaviours.

“We’re really starting to see the extent of online infringement,” says Craig Peters, senior vice president of business development, content and marketing at Getty Images. “In essence, everybody today is a publisher thanks to social media and self-publishing platforms. And it’s incredibly easy to find content online and simply right-click to utilise it.”

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To solve this problem, Getty Images has chosen an unconventional strategy. “We’re launching the ability to embed our images freely for non-commercial use online,” Peters explains. In essence, anyone will be able to visit Getty Images’ library of content, select an image and copy an embed HTML code to use that image on their own websites. Getty Images will serve the image in a embedded player – very much like YouTube currently does with its videos – which will include the full copyright information and a link back to the image’s dedicated licensing page on the Getty Images website.

BJP offers this editorial note at the end of the article:  BJP will analyse the full impact of today’s news in a series of articles to be published later today and this week. Stay tuned.

Read the entire article here.

Updated 3.5.2014 10:30 CST:

There’s a lively discussion going on regarding the Getty Images policy change under a post by  Russell Brandom at The Verge.  Read it here.

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