Getty Images: Why Are Free Range Chickens Coming Home?

August 2, 2016

I don’t know anything about Getty Images. Well, I think I recall at someone involved with Microsoft may have applied the magic touch to the outfit. Frankly I don’t know and I don’t care.

I think about Getty Images when a snappy headline draws my attention to an outfit selling rights to art, images, and probably lots of other “intellectual property.”

Navigate to “Getty Sued for $1 Billion for Selling Publicly Donated Photos.” Someone believes that Getty did them wrong. Who knows if it is true. I find the idea interesting.

According to the write up:

The Seattle-based company, which owns and licenses a collection of over 80 million images, has been sued by documentary photographer Carol Highsmith for ‘gross misuse’, after it sold more than 18,000 of her photos despite having already donated them for public use. Highsmith’s photos which were sold via Getty Images had been available for free via the Library of Congress. Getty has now been accused of selling unauthorized licenses of the images, not crediting the author, and for also sending threatening warnings and fines to those who had used the pictures without paying for the falsely imposed copyright.

What a clever idea. Take images from a public source and charge money for their use.

Extending this idea, perhaps Getty-type outfits would like to dig through the printed volumes in the Vatican Library, scan them, and sell those. Why not reach out to the digital crowd and suck down the video snippets which are free to use. Heck, there are some free photo services out there too.

I think that clever is definitely a great business angle. Oh, that billion dollars. How long will an individual be able to feed legal eagles if Getty has some deep pockets outside its door.

I admire MBA think. I wonder if roosting chickens leave behind a mess. I know roosting chickens have a nifty odor on hot days in those comfy coops in Maryland.

Stephen E Arnold, August 2, 2016

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Business strategy, Legal matters, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.