Getty Images joins the free digital content movement
The above image is an example of the use of the new embed widget for Getty Images.
Getty Images, a world-wide stock image provider with a digital catalog exceeding 80 million still images and illustrations announced in March that they are opening 35 million of their images for free use to non-commercial websites. This decision comes as a reaction to the increased unapproved use of Getty Images across digital outlets. While photographers for Getty are outraged at the free distribution of their images, expressing fears that such distribution will devalue the commercialization of their images, affect their return, and prevent small independent photographers from seeing any kind of profit, this move by Getty is a business response to the ever-changing digital landscape. Because the distribution of digital content cannot be otherwise effectively controlled, photographers need to not only embrace this new model but also explore other revenue-generating business models of their own to maintain monetary and artistic control over their images.
As the digital revolution changed the way stock imagery was distributed, Getty Images spent a lot of time and money attempting to enforce existing copyright laws. Just several years ago, Getty Images sent a letter to a church demanding payment of 6,000 euros for the use of a couple Getty images on the church’s website. In 2009, a similar letter, this one demanding $1,000, was delivered to a Long Beach travel agency. These letters were so often distributed they become known by bloggers and online content producers as “Getty Demand Letters.”
While the company’s own policy still states that they will do everything they can to enforce copyright laws, their recent announcement makes it clear the success rate of the demand letters wasn’t high enough to warrant continued action. Getty stopped demanding payment for copyright infringement in favor of their own digital distribution tool.
The chairmen of the British Journal of Photographers’ Association denounced this move as massively cynical: “‘It’s going to make people redundant,’ he says. ‘It’s going to put people out of work, without a shadow of a doubt. The first ones to fall will be small and independent freelancers and smaller agencies that are relying on small internet sales.’”
As of March, 35 million Getty images were made available to non-commercial sites free of charge through the utilization of an embed widget available on the company’s website. The introduction of the embed widget is Getty’s way of adjusting to the pervasive sharing culture of digital content producers. The widget includes branded and data elements with the images while providing for the possibility of an additional revenue stream through embedded advertisements, a model that has worked well for sites such as YouTube and Facebook.
While the official statements limit the use of the widget to “non-commercial” sites, that term is used loosely, according to a quote by Craig Peters, senior vice president of business development, content and marketing at Getty Images. Peters says “… The fact today 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. They would need to get a license.”
With this decision, Getty is appropriately responding to the culture of digital consumerism, favoring a controlled free distribution method over adherence to copyright laws predating digital technology; a difficult but necessary shift in business mentality.
What implications does this have for the businesses of the photographers supplying the images? To understand that, let’s first review the control structure for stock photographers.
Stock image distributors, such as Getty Images, act as “middle-men” to photographers by providing their services in licensing and marketing. Two main types of stock images exist: royalty-free and rights-managed.
Royalty-free images provide more lenient regulations. As stockphotorights.com states: “For royalty-free images, you get nearly unlimited use. You can use the image in virtually any application, for as long as you like, in as many different projects as you like, as long as you comply with the terms of the license agreement. … Following payment of the license fee, no additional royalty payments are owed.”
Rights-managed images, in contrast, can come with additional usage restrictions “with limitations placed on things such as duration of use, geographic region, industry, etc., as established by your license agreement.”
The ability of the photographer to choose between royalty-free and rights-managed for their images is their way of controlling their own revenue. Images deemed as higher quality or having required more effort to produce are most often placed under rights-managed, making them more exclusive with a higher price tag. Royalty-free images can almost be compared to the lesser quality “outtakes” of a shoot, providing a lower return.
These ratings, and the control the photographers had in applying these rating, made the photographers active participants in the digital image marketplace. Getty’s new embed widget nullifies that active participation, outraging their contributors. However, a weakening of the photographer’s role in that marketplace has been evident for several years, following the trends of other digital content industries.
Before 2011, photographers and contributors to Getty Images maintained control over the types of licenses associated with their images. In 2011, Getty changed their photographer and contributor contracts. While payout percentage of each sale were slashed significantly, the biggest concern of the photographers and contributors was their lessened control over the copyrights on their images. The new contracts granted Getty the authority “to move rights-managed images that haven’t been licensed for three years or longer to its royalty-free collections, and make royalty-free images available in its subscription products.”
The recent release of 35 million images for free use across non-commercial sites extends that contractual change, decreasing even more the control stock photographers have over their images and, in correlation, their possible revenue.
What reason does Getty give for making their images free? “Our content was everywhere already,” said Craig Peters.
As mentioned, Getty Images has previously been very active in tracking down copyright infringement and enforcing their financial terms. Searching the phrase “Getty demand letter” online leads to thousands of results titled such things as “Do I have to pay?” and “Can I ignore the letter?” as well as video tutorials on how to defend yourself against these letters when you have limited financial backing. The excessive number of results referring to the Getty demand letters leads to the inference that many more times as many images were being used and shared illegally, confirming Peters’ statement.
Peters continues, saying “What we’ve seen is a significant amount of infringement online in an area, unfortunately, that we can’t control because this is how the Internet has developed. What we’re trying to do here is to put a legal method in place for that to happen and that actually benefits our content owners.”
Today’s consumers of digital content have made it clear that certain content should and will be distributed without regard to original copyright law. Providing a method for that distribution is essential for producers and distributors to maintain a digital foothold within their industries.
It’s difficult not to compare this topic to that of the digital music battle of the late 1990s and early 2000s. While consumer behavior demanded the ability to share digital music files, the music industry did just what Getty Images first attempted, prosecuting individual copyright infringement. As noted by Peters, this battle led to the development of such things as Spotify and Soundcloud, giving producers a controlled environment to distribute free content. The details and contracts involved in other revenue channels within the music industry have been adjusted in an attempt to compensate the for the revenue lost through free digital distribution.
The introduction of the embed widget is Getty’s way of adjusting to the pervasive sharing culture of digital content producers. With this move by Getty Images, it won’t be long before other large providers follow suit, drastically changing the entire industry. Looking at independent photographers and image producers as businesses of their own, they would also benefit from adapting this mentality shift and adjusting their business and revenue models for the digital consumer culture.
Jeff Moore offers this advice: “Freelance photographers will have to start thinking outside the box … If you have a unique library, you’re going to have to start promoting yourself as your unique library. That’s your selling point…”
While the middle-men such as Getty Images are embracing the notion of altered rights in the digital age by offering options for free use of content, the image producers will have to find their own ways to do so, either by rebranding and exploring new ways of marketing themselves, or participating in new distribution methods for their images.