Getty Images has built and launched
Stockphotorights.com, an educational Web site that aims to guide users through the complexities and legal issues involved in image uses. The company said that the launch responds to the findings of a new survey, which identified a lack of understanding of such issues among many image users.
Stockphotorights.com launched with the support of the two largest national stock industry bodies: the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies and the Picture Archive Council of America. In addition to Getty-owned online brands—gettyimages.com, iStockphoto, Punchstock and Thinkstock—New York-based micro-payment business Shutterstock also announced its support for the project.
Last November, U.K.-based company Redshift Research conducted online interviews with more than 1,200 new and established image users in the U.S. and the U.K. The survey included people whose jobs involved sourcing stock, as well as small business owners and decision-makers in particular.
Redshift’s findings mirror those of previous surveys, most notably the U.K.-only survey conducted at the same time by Deutsche Telecom’s microstock business Polylooks, which found that, 37% of respondents have used images illegally by swiping them off the Internet. Redshift reveals similarly pervasive statistics: more than one third (39%) of surveyed image users copy images directly from image search engines, and nearly a quarter (22%) source imagery for commercial use from photo-sharing Web sites.
Nearly half of the respondents (48%) did not understand the legal concept of indemnification and almost as many (45%) were unaware that image users could face legal claims resulting from the use of a licensed image.
Redshift also confirms the proliferation of search engines as a buyer tool for finding images: 44% of small-business decision-makers said they sourced their images from Google Images.
In light of such findings, Getty Images said there was a need for a one-stop online resource to present information related to licensing images for commercial use. The content of Stockphotorights.com includes frequently asked questions—such as, “Can I use royalty-free images for free?”—and case studies that present legal situations that have arisen in the past. The site also features an educational video, related news feed, links and a user discussion forum.