Photobank Getty Images has opened free access to 35 million photos

One of the largest photobanks in the world, Getty Images removed watermarks from 35 million photos - and allowed them to be published free of charge for non-commercial purposes through a frame with embedded Embed content, like YouTube and others.

For Getty Images, this is an important step. Previously, they fought offenders with threats and fines, demanding that they remove photos of more than 150x150 px. Now they allow you to post good quality pictures for free.

Such actions of the largest photo bank show that the old methods with strict copyright protection and watermarks are ineffective on the Internet. Distribution of letters with threats to the owners of sites that have published "pirated" content is not valid. Bloggers have no money to pay 200-500 dollars for each photo.
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In the past years, publishers have been exclusively professional firms, but on the Internet each publisher himself. "In essence, everyone today is publishers thanks to social media and blogger platforms," ​​said Craig Peters, senior vice president of business development. “And it’s incredibly easy to find a photo on the Internet, and then just right-click to use it.”

Getty Images noticed that the photos from her photo bank are actively published in social media and blogs. “And they are published without watermarks,” Peters says. - Instead, users find a clean copy of the photo using search engines. We found out that the overwhelming majority of violations in this area are caused by the activities of non-professional publishers who, as a rule, know nothing about copyright and licensing and who do not have the budget to pay for the necessary content. ”

To combat this problem, Getty Images chose the right method: since March 6, she has opened a collection of photos for everyone through embedded frames, with a backward link and an indication of the author of the photo. Due to this, the photo bank will get more control over its content, because it is still freely published on the Internet. At the same time, according to the terms of service, Getty Images has the right to close access to photos at any time.

Peters also added that getting the site income from contextual advertising or other income still allows him to use photos of Getty Images.


Getty Images Embed Code

The site works by keyword search . Results are filtered by topic and other parameters. The Embed function is available only for a part of pictures from the photobank.