Getty Images is offering buyers who frequent Flickr as a source of images an opportunity to license any image they see—even the images that have not made it into the Flickr Collection on gettyimages.com.
The Request to License program works on an opt-in basis. Flickr artists now have the option to display a “Request to License through Getty Images” button on their public photo pages. Once a prospective buyer makes such a request, Getty Images contacts both Flickr users—the image creator and the buyer—and handles permission, release and pricing details.
Getty offers pricing guidance in its program FAQs, which currently use “Baby Takes a Tumble” as an example of what a buyer should expect to pay for a royalty-free image from Flickr: $5 to $475, depending on file size, which caps out at 60.2 megabytes (larger than 18” by 12” in print quality).
It can take between two and seven days to arrange licensing and make an image available for download off gettyimages.com. Flickr artists can access the program through individual photo pages, which display a “Want to License through Getty Images?” link to the image owner.
The Request to License program went live on Flickr yesterday and was announced on the Flickr blog.
The main Flickr Collection, now over a year old, remains successful, says the Seattle company. The collection now offers more than 100,000 images by some 10,000 artists. Getty editors continue to solicit contributions by reviewing new Flickr uploads, and the Call to Artists, originally launched last November, remains open.