R.I.P. Rights-Managed – Thoughts of a Bohemian

Just a day after Shutterstock revealed declining profits, a Getty Images email sent to its contributors worldwide made its way to social media and public forum. In it, Getty explains that it will soon transform all remaining rights-managed images into Royalty-Free and cease accepting new ones. “”We have confidently concluded that the RM creative image licensing model no longer meets our customers’ needs,” writes the Seatle giant, “especially given the flexibility demanded by digital marketing and the increasing reuse of imagery, and it actually reduces our overall competitiveness.” In other words, rights-managed is too complicated and no longer adapted to the marketplace.