Getty to comb Flickr for images/photogs to buy
July 18, 2008
This says something about User-Generated Content — status quo is shifting, blurring the lines between amateur and pro.
Read the NYT article here:
“Great Photo On Flickr? Getty Might Pay You For It”
Which I think should read: Getty might just make you pay for it — because really, they’re trying to monetize the photography that we the people can now get at pretty affordable rates compared to the exorbitant amounts Getty charges — which, I know, I know, is so they can pay their photographers and so their photographers can pay their bills.
But still… I’m not sure what this means — could someone go onto my blog and offer me a book deal? yes. So why not Getty being allowed the freedom to trawl photographers’ work to offer them a paying gig for what they do for fun. More power to ya! I’m just being selfish here, wanting the access to images for free 24/7.
If the photos are owned by Getty, at least we’ll be able to find them with a little more ease. sheesh! Have you tried the Flickr “Search” tool. It sucks. Oh yeah, that’s right. Flickr is owned by Yahoo. hmmm. Maybe the Yahoo-Microsoft deal would’ve helped out Flickr search with some of Live Search’s technology. Maybe whomever runs the categorization tools or the backend site functionality at Flickr would get some fire under their ass and improve this!!!
But, alas, expectations get me into trouble every time.
