# Getty gets Giddy....



## steveWFL (Mar 6, 2014)

[h=3]copyright[/h] [h=1]Since It Can't Sue Us All, Getty Images Embraces Embedded Photos[/h]

For the past decade or so, the best defense Getty Images  could find against the right-click button on your mousehome of the  copy and save functionshas been a team of scary lawyers. By copying  one of its images and using it on your blog, youre entering a random  drawing where the prize is a terrifying letter offering a tutorial in  copyright litigation.
But this week the photography company is  embarking on a different strategy: Anyone can now visit its website,  grab some embed code, and display an image on blogs or Facebook (FB)  pages without paying a licensing fee. As a technological feat, of  course, embeddable media is unremarkable. Its a basic feature on  YouTube and Twitter (TWTR)  and many other major websites. Yet it marks an unlikely pivot for  Getty, which makes its money selling permission to use photos from its  vast library of work from more than 150,000 individuals, stock photo  agencies, and media organizations. Creating an embedding tool is a tacit  acknowledgment that Getty simply cant police the use of its images to  the four corners of the Internet.

Since It Can't Sue Us All, Getty Images Embraces Embedded Photos - Businessweek


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## 2WheelPhoto (Mar 6, 2014)

^^^ OOPS...   I logged in with 1st screen name (I never hardly used)


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## tirediron (Mar 6, 2014)

Ehhh...  methinks you're being naive.  I'm guessing this is the first step in their latest, "All the photographs in the world, including the ones you haven't taken yet belong to US!"


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## 2WheelPhoto (Mar 6, 2014)

tirediron said:


> Ehhh...  methinks you're being naive.  I'm guessing this is the first step in their latest, "All the photographs in the world, including the ones you haven't taken yet belong to US!"



'prolly so, but they're throwing in the towel and giving in to a degree


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## Overread (Mar 6, 2014)

There is no denying that the internet is going to change the face of copyright - however until we live in utopia where we don't have to  work to pay and live our way in the world I don't think I can ever support the concept of allowing people to profit from others work with no payback or reconciliation for the creator of the work. Big companies are actually quite amusing as on the one hand you've groups like Disney trying to copyright everything for eternity and on the other side you've ones fighting to get access to "orphan works" and remove the copyright protections.

Next to that we've the rising power of China which has no copyright laws (or at least very very lax ones).


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## 2WheelPhoto (Mar 6, 2014)

I wonder how folks who have been uploading and profiting from Getty will take the news.  Another reporter's perspective:


[h=1]Getty gives away 35 million images for free[/h]
On Thursday, stock-image giant Getty Images announced  it will release 35 million images in its library of about 80 million  images for use by bloggers and social media sites. The company admitted  that it hasn&#8217;t been able to police all corners of the Web, leading to  widespread use of its photos &#8211; which include iconic images of presidents  such as John F. Kennedy and pop culture icons such as Beyonce. The  solution? Give the people what they want (and already have been taking)....

Getty gives away 35 million images for free - CSMonitor.com


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