If you don’t know Getty Images, it’s the largest image archive on the Web. Unfortunately, until now, in order to use them sans watermark you had to pay big dollars. Not anymore. If you have a Facebook page, a blog, or Website – you can use the new embed code to insert images in you blog post, social media page or Website. True, Getty’s going to make sure Getty gets the credit, because when you embed a Getty image on your page, it’s going to be clear where it came from — but still, it’s a great way to add photos to your Website, blog or social media pages. There are literally hundreds of thousands of images you can embed wherever you want — with a caveat — you have to use Getty’s embed code in order to use the images without the ugly watermark. It’s fair, I think.
We learned about this today while browsing through the many newsletter we receive — this article happens to be from The Verge. If you love to work with images, this post is for you.
The world’s largest photo service just made its pictures free to use
Getty Images is betting their business on embeddable photos
If you go to the Getty Images website, you’ll see millions of images, all watermarked. There are more than a hundred years of photography here, from FDR on the campaign trail to last Sunday’s Oscars, all stamped with the same transparent square placard reminding you that you don’t own the rights. If you want Getty to take off the watermark, you’ll have to pay for it.
“OUR CONTENT WAS EVERYWHERE ALREADY.”
Starting now, that’s going to change. Getty Images is dropping the watermark for the bulk of its collection, in exchange for an open-embed program that will let users drop in any image they want, as long as the service gets to append a footer at the bottom of the picture with a credit and link to the licensing page. For a small-scale WordPress blog with no photo budget, this looks an awful lot like free stock imagery.
It’s a real risk for the company, since it’s easy to screenshot the new versions if you want to snag an unlicensed version. But according to Craig Peters, a business development exec at Getty Images, that ship sailed long ago.