licensing

DL Cade

Getty Embed Tool Already Subverted: You Can Crop Out the Credit Line

Update: It looks like it's already been fixed. Kudos to Getty for the quick response.

Getty's embed tool has been live for less than 24 hours and ALREADY somebody has figured out how it can be taken advantage of. It turns out that all it takes is some extremely simple code to remove attribution entirely.

Pat David
Getty Images Licensing Page Image

Some Thoughts on Getty’s Embed Tool

So Getty Images has made some waves with the announcement of its embedding "feature" to allow non-commercial use of their images without a watermark.  This move is bound to kick off some interesting discussions on the state of photography in a digital sharing age.

DL Cade

Getty’s New Embed Tool Makes Millions of Photos Free to Use Non-Commercially

Last night, Getty Images made a huge announcement that could forever change the way high quality images are shared on the Internet. Like Flickr before it, Getty is introducing an embed feature, essentially creating an "easy, legal, and free" way for people to share the majority of the agency's images in a non-commercial context.

DL Cade

Photographer Called Out by PhotoStealers Threatens Defamation Lawsuit

Many of you are familiar with the website PhotoStealers, which acts as "a wall of shame... dedicated to photographers that feel that it's okay to steal others work and post it as their own." Photo theft is expertly weeded out and exposed by the site's creator, who has taken on some big names including Jasmine Star and Doug Gordon.

The most recent PhotoStealers post, however, might reach even more epic proportions than the Star/Gordon shame-fest. It involves one Christopher Jones of CJ Photography and, before long, might involve a defamation lawsuit as well.

DL Cade

Dotspin: Rewarding Creative Commons Photogs for Sharing Quality Pictures

There's a brand new service in town that's looking to help out those photographers who choose to share their images for free with the online community. Powered by Creative Commons, the new website Dotspin uses a hashtag and voting system to determine a photo's quality and give the photographer a chance to earn credits towards rewards such as restaurant gift cards.

Michael Zhang

iStockphoto Booting Top Photographer in Wake of Getty/Google Hoopla

A new controversy is brewing in the world of stock photography. Just last month, it came to light that Getty had agreed to license 5000 of its stock photos to Google while paying the creators of the images a meager one-time fee of $12. Now, one of Getty's most successful stock photographers is claiming that his account is being terminated in the aftermath of the first hoopla.

Michael Zhang

Portland Now Charging Photographers for Use of Iconic City Sign

Drive across the west end of the Burnside Bridge in Portland, Oregon, and you're bound to see the iconic Portland, Oregon sign, commonly known as the "White Stag sign." It's an oft-photographed sign that was named a historic landmark back in 1977.

If you were planning on featuring it in a photo shoot, however, you'll now want to bring your checkbook in addition to your camera -- the city of Portland is now charging fees for anyone who would like to use images of the sign commercially.

DL Cade

Google Strikes Controversial Licensing Deal with Getty Images

Back in early December, Google announced that the company would be adding 5,000 new stock images of "nature, weather, animals, sports, food, education, technology, music and 8 other categories" for free use in Docs, Sheets and Slides.

At the time nobody knew how Google got these images, who took them, or what kind of license they came with. The mystery continued on unsolved until a week ago when an iStocker discovered one of his own images in the search results. As it turns out, the use of these photos is the result of a little known licensing deal between Google and Getty Images.

Michael Zhang

500px Follows Flickr’s Lead, Introduces Creative Commons Licensing

Creative Commons licensing is becoming a common option on major photo and video sharing services -- Flickr and YouTube, for example -- but it's not something that 500px offered -- until now. The fast-growing Flickr rival is now onboard with flexible copyright agreements, rolling out Creative Commons licensing options for all of its users yesterday.

Michael Zhang

I Am CC Allows Instagram Users to Share Under a Creative Commons License

Flickr's Creative Commons licensing options allows its users to grant licenses that allow creators to make use of the photographs under a set of terms (e.g. attribution, non-commercial). Most photo sharing services have yet to bake Creative Commons licenses into their websites, but starting today, Instagram users can now release their photos under CC -- albeit through a third-party solution.

It's called I Am CC, and is a project started by LocalWiki founder Philip Neustrom that aims to "make the world a better, more creative place."

Jessica Lum

New UK Policy Raises Concern Over Copyright Amongst Photographers

The UK government issued an updated copyright policy statement today that's intended to modernize copyright law in a digital era. But here's where those traditionally protected under copyright -- authors, poets, artists, photographers and so forth -- begin to cringe: sweeping definitions of "orphan works" and Extended Collective Licensing could allow companies to buy chunks of content without compensating original authors.

Stephen Desroches

The Handcuffs and Temptation of Stock Agencies

Someone finds your work on Flickr. They contact Getty Images to buy it. Getty Images contacts you for permission to sell it to their buyer. Do you do it?

Jeff Swanson

A Man Can’t Live on Image Credit Alone

So, from time to time, I receive requests to use my images for various purposes — like on a blog or a pamphlet or a calendar or the side of a zeppelin or for a urinal cake. Typically, if they are nice and they’re not going to be making a load of cash off where they’d like to use my image then I’ll let them use it as long as they give me credit. I’m especially generous with environmental interests and non-profits and ice cream manufacturers offering vouchers for all-you-can-eat tours.

But then there are the chumps (and chumpettes) who will be making a substantial amount of money off of the use of my image and I send them packing unless they pony up a fair amount of money. The latest version of this repetitive saga really got caught all up in my craw and so I felt the need to write a bit about it.

Michael Zhang

Photographer Suing Skechers for $250M for Violating Licensing Agreement

Here's a lawsuit you might want to keep an eye on: in late 2010, photographer Richard Reinsdorf sued shoe company Skechers for violating the licensing agreement for a number of images he made for the company between 2006 and 2009. While the lawsuit itself isn't anything unusual, the price demanded by Reinsdorf is: he wants $250 million.

Michael Zhang

Allowing Free Use of Your Photos Could Actually Save Your Business

Could allowing the use of your photos for free actually be a way to increase income? Portrait photographer Jonathan Worth -- the man behind Coventry University's free photo courses -- used to send take-down notices to any website that shared his work without permission. Then he met author Cory Doctorow, a proponent of Creative Commons licensing, who suggested that he try giving away his work for free. Worth then made a high-res photo freely available online and quickly sold 111 signed prints, netting him £800 (~$1,270).