Getty Images has taken a major step towards addressing unauthorized image use by allowing low-resolution (~0.17MP - and if that's hard to visualize check out the picture in this story) embedding of images for no charge, with no watermark, on non-commercial 'blogs and social media'.
Admitting that combatting unauthorized image use by the world's Internet users is impractical, Getty is pitching the new embedding service, which is available for more than 35 million photographs as a legal alternative to image theft.
Speaking to the British Journal of Photography, Craig Peters (SVP
Business Development, Content and Marketing) says that Getty needs to
adopt to a reality where 'everybody today is a publisher thanks to
social media and self-publishing platforms'.
Embedding (which
excludes certain restricted collections such as Getty's Premium Archive,
Contour and Reportage) offers in Peters' words 'a legal method' to use
copyright images. Embedding is strictly limited to non-commercial image use, and in the words of its terms and conditions,
Getty reserves the right to 'place advertisements in the Embedded
Viewer or otherwise monetize its use without any compensation to [the
embedder of the image]'.
It is certainly true that unauthorized
image use is widespread, and on the face of it, offering watermark-free
embedding to online publishers engaged in non-commercial content
creation seems fairly innocuous.
However, as for that distinction between commercial and non-commercial
use, Craig Peters' comments to the BJP (echoed in an FAQ made available
to Getty contributors) might not offer much comfort to its
photographers...
'the fact [...] that a
website is generating revenue would not limit the use of the embed.
What would limit that use is if they used our imagery to promote a
service, a product or their business.'
Which means that as editor
of dpreview.com - an advertising-supported website - I can embed the
image at the top of this news story free of charge, because I'm not
using it to promote a service, product or my business.
But as the guy who took the picture, I won't see a penny.
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