Getty and Flickr's New Relationship

From time to time something good comes along from Getty Images. Such is the case with the latest announcement that people trolling Flickr for free photographs can license the photographs via Getty. I see this as a bit of a mixed bag, but with a net positive effect. The BBC reports here on the subject, as does Rob Haggart on his "A Photo Editor" column here, and even Paul Melcher sees something positive in it here.

It seems that Getty wants Flickr to be the middle man in the transaction, with Getty taking a piece of the pie as well. It's not clear yet how much a license will be, or even how much of a percentage everyone is going to take, but you can be sure that with an estimated 40,000,000 registered Flickr users, and multiple millions of images from them combined, even in an "opt in" approach, you can bet that a flood of new content will be licensable, and generate revenue for many parties.

(Comments, if any, after the Jump)

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