Yes. You take fabulous photographs and we’ve all heard stories (the good, the bad and the ugly) of members who’ve been approached over the last four years to have their photographs featured beyond the flickrverse.
Team Flickr has long wanted to create a way to make it easier for those who use photos in the digital publishing industry to do so in a way that respects the talent and rights of our members.
The great folks at Flickr and Getty Images are joining forces to build a platform that will enable the creation of a first class collection of royalty free, and rights managed photographs.
Getty Images is a recognized leader in the field of stock photography and an ideal partner to curate and host a collection of Flickr photographs. As with our other great partners, they have the knowledge and experience that complements the incredible talent of our membership.
Getty Images’ photo editors will identify photos that they would like to feature in the collection and reach out directly to members of the Flickr community via a new platform that we are developing for them.
Stock photography is a collection or archive of images that can be licensed for use. It’s a way for companies or individuals to purchase photographs without having to hire a photographer for a specific shoot.
Given that there are billions of photos on Flickr already and we’ve heard all sorts of stories about Flickr members being contacted about selling their photographs, we decided to partner with a stock photography expert, Getty Images.
There are lots of commercial entities out there that want to do the right thing, paying Flickr members for their hard work and beautiful, creative photography.
No. Microstock is a licensing approach where images are sold for very low minimum and maximum prices. The Flickr collection on Getty Images will be licensed under two licensing models: royalty-free and rights-managed. Both of these are priced and licensed the same as Getty Images premier collections such as Stone, Taxi, The Image Bank, Photonica, Photodisc and Digital Vision to name but a few.
Getty Images has an experienced team of editors who are scouring the Flickrverse for public photographs they feel would complement The Flickr Collection on Getty Images. Once the editors find photos they feel are suitable, they will be contacting the photographer who published it via FlickrMail. (That message will also be sent to the primary email address associated with your Flickr account.)
If you receive an invitation, congratulations! The note will detail photos that Getty Images editors feel would do well as part of the collection, and it’s up to you to decide whether to proceed with some or all of the images they’re interested in. That will mean signing up as a Getty Images Contributor, and submitting your photos for a comprehensive review (to make sure the file’s large enough, you have model releases – stuff like that).
If you’re not interested, you can just ignore that invitation, and/or opt out of the program altogether.
There is no obligation to become part of the Flickr collection on Getty Images, though it is a wonderful opportunity to participate in the world of stock photography.
Nothing happens automatically over on Getty Images just because you have a Flickr account. The editing team at Getty Images is actively looking for suitable public imagery here on flickr.com, and when they find suitable work, they’ll contact the photographer to see if she’s interested to join in the fun.
If you’re not interested, you can just ignore any invitation you might receive, and/or opt out of the program altogether.
If you receive an invitation to join the Flickr collection on Getty Images, you’ll be asked to create an account with them, so you become a Getty Contributor. The signup process takes a little while, because it involves setting yourself up to receive payments if/when licenses are purchased for your work. Getty Images handles the taxation side of things too, so your Contributor account will need to include details about all that. You might like to read Getty Images’ Privacy Policy.
Here are the main steps involved:
1. Profile – Your name, email address, mailing address, whether you’re signing up as an individual or a business.
2. Payments – Getty Images can pay Contributors almost anywhere in the world. So, you’ll need to tell them where in the world you’d like to be paid and details about how to pay you, like your Paypal account, or bank account information.
3. Taxes – Getty Images will be generating the relevant tax documentation expected by the country where you will be paid, so will need to know your taxation number.
4. Agreement – You’ll be signing a contract with Getty Images because they’re helping to sell your work on your behalf. At this step you’ll be able to review the agreement based on the information you’ve entered. You’ll have 90 days to digitally sign the agreement it before it expires and you’ll need to start again.
5. Confirmation – The final step, it’s your chance to review everything you’ve entered against your (nearly) new Getty Images Contributor account. It’s here that you’ll actually agree to the agreement you reviewed in the previous step, and once you do, your new account will be opened. Yay!
Once you’ve completed that final confirmation step, it will be time to set up your photos for sale.
The main reason for the contract is because you own the copyright and Getty Images will be selling your work on your behalf, and they need a way to pay you. It’s important that you are crystal clear on the terms for how your photos will be licensed, and that you agree to those terms. Hey presto! Contract! As with any legal document, there’s nothing stopping you from having your lawyer look things over if you’re unsure about anything.
The Getty Images FAQ also provides more detailed information about the main points of the Contributor Agreement.
Absolutely! Getty Images already works with Contributors from all over the world, and has done so for years. They already have systems in place to handle licensing and fulfillment around the globe. You’ll just need to make sure you can provide a way to get paid! (Like, Paypal or electronic funds transfer into a bank account.)
By the way, the Flickr part of Getty Images site is only available in English, with future plans to launch in additional languages.
Editors from Getty Images curate the Flickr collection on Getty Images. That means if you have a public photo that the editors think will appeal to their customers, they’ll ask you if you’d like to add it to the collection. If you accept this invitation, after preparing it for licensing, your photo will be available for sale.
Possibly. The team is on the lookout for images that meet the minimum file size requirement or don’t have the required model releases, because those photos would be unsuitable for sale, and therefore rejected.
Not directly, but by making the image public on Flickr there is always the chance (unless you opt out of the service) that the editors will invite you to join the Flickr collection on Getty Images.
There are two types of license available in The Flickr Collection on Getty Images:
1. Rights-managed (RM) – Rights-managed works are licenses on a use-by-use basis. Price of the license takes size, placement, duration of use and geographic distribution into account. (Getty Images has built a calculator for this.) Exclusive rights to work are available for some rights-managed products. Find out more about Rights-managed licensing over at Getty Images.
2. Royalty-free (RF) – Royalty-free images are licensed at set prices based upon the file-size the customer purchases. The end-use is not specified (though certain types of uses that are defamatory, pornographic or illegal are banned) so the customer has a lot of flexibility in how they use the images, and can use them multiple times. Find out more about Royalty-free licensing over at Getty Images.
Getty Images editors will be inviting your work into the collection for licensing under on the most viable of the three licensing models, with the intention to make you AS MUCH MONEY AS PO$$IBLE. (When you agree to post your work in the collection, editors will review everything for you to make sure your work is set up correctly for sale.)
A model release is a legal document signed by the subject(s) of a photo, granting permission for his or her image to be used for commercial purposes.
Getty Images editors will let you know when you need to provide releases. You can review examples of a Getty Images Model Release, and a Getty Images Property Release if you’re interested.
If one of your photos is invited into the Flickr collection on Getty Images, you should take a moment to work out whether or not you'll even be able to get a release from the person (or property!) in the work. If that’s impossible, it will be quicker to decline the invite.
If there are recognizable people in your work, you will need their explicit permission to license their image commercially. Sometimes you will need a property release too, if a building or other private property in your photo requires permission from the property owner.
Photos you can’t supply a model release for are unsuitable for this program.
There is a chance one of your Creative Commons-licensed photos may catch the eye of a perceptive Getty Images editor. You are welcome to upload these photos into the Flickr collection on Getty Images, but you are contractually obliged to reserve all rights to sale for your work sold via Getty Images. If you proceed with your submission, switching your license to All Rights Reserved (on Flickr) will happen automatically.
If you’re not cool with that, that’s totally cool. It just means that particular photo will need to stay out of the Flickr collection on Getty Images.
No! You can (and should) continue to feature your photos on Flickr -- as long as it is for personal, non-commercial use. You can do anything except create a different license for its use.
Getty Images has the exclusive right to sell your images and images substantially similar to those in a commercial context once you've accepted their invitation (and signed the Getty Images Contributor Agreement). Any and all of your other non-similar photographs not in the Flickr collection can be sold freely by you, though not on Flickr itself, because that goes against our Community Guidelines. You know, like, don’t use Flickr for commercial purposes.
That’s a good question! And one that’s impossible to answer! The options really are endless…On a billboard? In a magazine? On a popular website somewhere?
It’s important you understand that any Getty customer can purchase the work you contribute to the Flickr collection on Getty Images. Once they have purchased a license for its use, it might turn up anywhere. Getty Images prohibits any use that is defamatory or pornographic, so there are some ways you should not expect to see your images used.
There are three main stages of your agreement with Getty Images:
1) You have signed the agreement, but you haven’t processed your photos for sale yet,
2) You have signed the agreement and have photos for sale but none have sold, or
3) You have signed the agreement, have photos for sale, and one or more has sold. (YAY!)
If you’re at step 1), you don’t even really need to back out since you don’t have to accept your invitations, and your account can just sit there – it will expire after its initial term of two years.
If you’ve signed the agreement but have not processed any of your images, you don’t even really need to back out since you don’t have to accept your invitations, and your account can just sit there – it will expire after its initial term of two years. So be sure you are ready to give Getty Images rights before you hit the "Submit" button.
If you have processed images and submitted them to the website, those images are bound by the contract which lasts two years—but you need not accept any more invitations you receive. You will have the chance to write to Getty Images and cancel the agreement within 60 days of the end of that 2 year term to release the images you submitted. You’ll need to let Getty Images know in writing, otherwise, your contract will be automatically renewed for one more year.
If after two years, you wish to terminate the agreement, you’ll need to let Getty Images know in writing, with 60 days notice. Otherwise, your contract will be automatically renewed. (All this is outlined in the Getty Images Contributor Agreement.)
During image preparation, before you submit the final to the Getty Images site, there are multiple opportunities to remove the photo from the collection.
Once you hit the "Submit" button after preparing the image, you cannot remove the image from the collection. (Getty Images customers need to know that when they save an image to their lightbox and pitch it to their client, it will still be there for them when they have the green light to use it!)
Deciding to actually sell your work on Getty Images is a big step, and something that you need to fully understand before you do it, because once your photos has sold, rights licensed won’t be withdrawn from the client and won’t expire until the license expires.
Don’t worry if your photos aren't selected. Did we mention there are billions of photos on Flickr? At least for now, the Getty Images team is in the building stage and looking to grow steadily. Getting a photo into the Flickr collection really isn’t the be-all-and-end-all. (Even though it’s fun!)
There’s also a Getty Images Flickr group you can join or visit to chat with other Flickr members.
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