Getty Gets the Internet
In an era, where old media is either unwilling or unable to adapt to the Age of the Internet, Getty, the world’s largest photo agency, made a refreshing (and sensible) change. They just made over 35 million of their photos free for use on the Net, subject to some terms that show that we finally have a media company that “gets” the Internet! You might be wondering what’s the big deal with that? Weren’t we already doing what Megan Garber describes anyway: “If you find a photo, via Google Image Search or some such, that you want to publish on your blog (or tweet out to your followers, or use as your Instagram profile pic, or what have you), there is an extremely simple way to accomplish this: Download or screencap the image. Upload it. Boom. The Internet has shared its riches with you once again.” Except that it has always been illegal (depending on which image you used): “If you have engaged in this process with an image that happens to be from Getty, the massive digital p...