Getty Images lit up the Twittersphere today with a press release that it was making its archive available gratis for bloggers and other non-commercial users. The various big questions are: What’s Getty gaining by making images free to the general public? How does Getty’s decision affect not just its own contributors, but all photographers? And are there any hidden costs to non-commercial users who make the most of Getty’s free images?

Getty CEO Jonathan Klein says inside the announcement that the “easy, legal sharing…benefits our content contributors and partners.”

One benefit to the corporate and its partners is that by automatically crediting the photographs and linking them back to Getty’s website, the embed tool makes it easy to seek out and license the photographs for commercial use.

At the identical time, the embed tool may even makes it easier for Getty to trace non-commercial uses of its images, and the users who benefit from the company’s offer of free images. Under the terms of use, Getty reserves the proper to gather data from embed tool users, and push ads throughout the embed viewer without compensation to users. (The terms of use prohibit commercial uses, that are defined by example, and include advertising, promotions, merchandising, endorsements, and sponsorships.)

By making images free to non-commercial users, Getty also sidesteps the problem and fees of pursuing copyright violations by those who use images in blogs and social media without permission. Such violations are rampant, and the legal costs of pursuing them usually outweigh the returns. Moreover, companies are reluctant to sue potential customers.

But Getty’s decision to open up its archive to non-commercial users at no cost could undermine years of  effort by photographers and their trade groups to coach the general public about copyright and the legal imperative to hunt permission from copyright owners to make use of images in all cases.

The decision also has implications for the perceived value of pictures. Stock photo prices fell precipitously for years, eventually to prices as little as a dollar, forcing many photographers out of the stock photo business. Now, billions of imagery are shot and uploaded annually by everyone including amateurs, further devaluing images.

Critics may accuse the agency of driving down the price of pictures much more with its embed tool, however the company may only be reacting to the facts at the ground: Images come in totally free everywhere, and Getty’s best opportunity to make cash is to harness non-commercial users to drive sales of business licenses.

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