Getty Goes Free(ish) with Their Image Library

Getty Images is cutting out the image-thieving middle man and offering up a large part of its massive library of photos for free for your site or blog or whatever – provided you’re cool with using their new embed scheme.

Instead of the typical watermark, Getty Images will now simply allow users to take advantage of their photos using an embed code with the usual social hooks and proper accreditation.

Previously, Getty Image users would have to pay for the images they wanted, thus allowing a secondary base of of users to grab the images and repost them without credit. This way, Getty’s still not getting paid, but, as The Verge points out, this allows the photo service to potentially nab some ad revenue through the embeds.

This means Getty has another stream of money coming in and they won’t have to police the Internet trying to sniff out illegal use of their content. The lesson here is to be flexible, I guess? Instead of accepting that people will steal their content, Getty’s making it easier to get access while also finding a new way to get paid, with the added benefit of not creating an antagonistic relationship with new and existing users.

[Source: The Verge]