Getty Images recently announced that it has changed its view regarding the use of its extensive photo portfolio, CNET said. The image provider who has been charging fees for access and use of its photos, recently launched a new Embed tool that would allow users to use one or many of its over 35 million images for noncommercial purposes.
Getty said the inspiration to share its widely-pirated photos is to provide photographers new ways to earn revenue and perhaps stave off copyright infringement occurrences of its photos.
As explained in an article by Curve, which is also backed by Getty Images, the rise of copyright infringement of photos has been caused by the current advent of smartphones and tablets and the limitations of being able to cite sources of the content in growing social networks.
Senior vice president of business development, product and content Craig Peters at Getty Images, told CNET Australia, "What we're trying to do is take a behavior that already exists and enable it legally, then try to get some benefits back to the photographer primarily through attribution and linkage. Over time there are other monetization options we can look at. That could be data options, advertising options. If you look at what YouTube has done with their embed capabilities, they are serving ads in conjunction with those videos that are served around the Internet."
Peters is referring to the same iFrame code YouTube, Flickr and Twitter has used in their products to ensure appropriate attribution is in place when one uses it in a social media post or a blog. CNEt said that since the metadata needed to ensure compliance of copyright laws remain in the photo, users could then click on the existing Getty Images photo to obtain more information on the image like the name of the photographer or to license the image other than for personal purposes.
