Getty’s Free Image Program: New Revenue Model, or a Surrender to Copyright Infringement? | PDNPulse
Getty Images lit up the Twittersphere today with an announcement that it was making its archive available free of charge for bloggers and other non-commercial users. Some of the big questions are: What is Getty gaining by making images free to the public?
The decision also has implications for the perceived value of images. Stock photo prices fell precipitously for years, eventually to prices as low as a dollar, forcing many photographers out of the stock photo business. Now, billions of images are shot and uploaded annually by everyone including amateurs, further devaluing images.