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Getty, the world's largest photo service, has opened millions of its photographs to anyone—bloggers, Facebookers, the Twitterati—by installing an embed tool. The technology is the same as YouTube's, which makes it (a) easy and free to publish on blogs and social as well as (b) easy for the company to plant ads and collect data.
From the way Getty senior VP Craig Peters put it, it sounds like the giant photo service just got tired of the search and sue method, in which it scoured the internet for purloined pics and filed copyright suits accordingly. "There are two ways to look at the world," he told Bloomberg. "People sharing content without a license is an issue—or it's an opportunity."
And the opportunity here is to get its photographers paid by linking back to the source of the image and, in the future, explore ad revenue possibilities. However, while the present terms of use state that Getty "reserves the right to place advertisements in the Embedded Viewer or otherwise monetize its use without any compensation to you," internet users don't have to fear image ads on their favorite websites quite yet. Peters told our sister site The Verge, "We've seen what YouTube's done with monetizing their embed capabilities. I don't know if that's going to be appropriate for us or not." Still, this plus Sheryl Sandberg's recent work with the company shows Getty is making major moves—and taking major risks—to adapt to a rapidly changing online culture.
· The World's Largest Photo Service Just Made its Pictures Free to Use [The Verge]
· A Day in the Life of a Fashion Week Photographer [Racked]
· Sheryl Sandberg and Getty Want to Change Lady Stock Photos [Racked]