Dev.SN

mattie_p writes

"Getty Images, an American stock photo agency with over 80 million still photographs and more than 50,000 hours of video in its catalog, is offering about 35 million images for non-profit use for free, according to a report from the BBC and recent changes to its terms of use, in an effort to combat piracy.

Getty Images realized that many of their photographs have been utilized in the past without attribution, and embeds the photographs in code that links back to its own site. By offering the ability to embed photos, Getty is saying it cannot effectively police the use of its images in every nook and cranny of the internet. Yet it also may use the code to serve advertisements in the future, allowing it to make revenue by sharing its catalog.

Getty has been both the plaintiff and defendant in several lawsuits regarding use of their images online. This experiment may bode well for the future of freely (as in beer) distributed intellectual property in a free and connected society, but then again, maybe not."