- Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc. (NYSE|GYI) is a stock photo agency, based in
Seattle, Washington , USA.It is a supplier of stock images for business and consumers with an archive of 70 million still images and illustrations and more than 30,000 hours of stock film footage. It targets three markets — creative professionals (advertising and graphic design), the media (print and online publishing), and corporate communication departments for other businesses.
Getty has distribution offices around the world and capitalizes on the Internet and CD-ROM collections for distribution. The company also offers custom photo services for corporate clients.
History
In
1993 ,Mark Getty and Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Klein co-founded Getty Investments LLC, which today is the principal shareholder of Getty Images.Mark Getty is the company's chairman.In
September 1997 , Getty Communications, as it was called at the time, merged with PhotoDisc, Inc. to form Getty Images.In
September 2007 , Getty Images adopted a new pricing policy for web image sales that has caused a great deal of controversy among photographers. This policy created a new price package of only $49 for small web images. Controversially, this price was intended to apply to both "rights-managed" and "royalty-free" images. In the past, rights-managed images have commanded a price that could easily be 10 times that amount. As a result, a number of international photographers' organizations have complained to Getty. The repricing has occurred at a time when Getty Images' share price and profitability have been under pressure.The Getty family owns about 20 percent of the company.
Competition
There are dozens of companies selling stock photography competing with Getty, but the largest is a public company formerly known as Internet.com, named
Jupitermedia Corporation , and a private company controlled by Bill Gates, namedCorbis . By buying out the many family-owned businesses that created the field, Getty, Jupiter and Corbis—are in the process of "rolling-up" the stock photo business. In recent months, Getty bought out Digital Vision,iStockphoto , and Stockbyte, and Jupiter bought Comstock and PictureArts.Acquisitions
In 2004, Getty bought image.net for $20 million USD. [image.net — [http://www.image.net/xads/marketing/about/index.html About] ] On
February 9 ,2006 , the controversial microstock photo websiteiStockphoto was acquired by Getty Images for $50 million USD. [" [http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001994651 Getty Images Buys iStockPhoto.com For $50 Million] " (Photo District News)] In 2007, Getty successfully purchased its largest competitor, MediaVast, for $207mil. The acquisition meant that Getty Images gained control ofWireImage (Entertainment, creative, and sports photography), FilmMagic (fashion and red carpet photography), Contour Photos (portrait and studio photography) and a host of other subsidiaries including "Master Delegates" who include:Gallo Images inJohannesburg ,Touchline Photo inCape Town ,Isifa Image Service inPrague ,Laura Ronchi inItaly [ [http://media.gettyimages.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=131 Getty Images Acquires Its Italian Master Delegate, Laura Ronchi, S.p.A.] ]ale of company
In February 2008 it was announced that Getty Images would be acquired by
Hellman & Friedman in a transaction valued at an estimated US$2.4 billion. [ [http://media.gettyimages.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=171 Getty Images Press Release 25 February 2008] ]Copyright enforcement
Getty Images uses a firm called
PicScout to scan the web andArchive.org , for unauthorized and unlicensed usages of its protected images. Websites that are found to be in violation are queried via theWhois database and sent financial settlements that retroactively licensed the image. However, the settlements also demand damages, which are said to have been incurred against the copyright holder. Thousands of these letters have been sent out, yet according to the Wall Street Journal in October 2005, Getty had not taken any of these potential cases to court. [" [http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB112897424251164666-0mFu92_5xrCHDRrqLE9YeCOfOnI_20061015.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top Photo Agencies Scour the Web For Copyright Violations] " (Wall Street Journal)] [" [http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/11/getty_copyright/ Web designers get grouchy over Getty] " (The Register)] However, Getty published a notice to its contributors describing how a court decision in New York makes it more difficult to obtain damages for infringement. [" [http://contributors.gettyimages.com/article.asp?article_id=890 A message to Getty Images contributors] " (GettyImages.com)] The article does not state whether Getty Images was a party involved in the court case. Their corporate counsel for copyright enforcement isLaura Malone , who used to work in the entertainment industry as an actress. [" [http://www.zoom-in.com/blog/2007/02/fair_use_for_documentary_filmm.php Fair Use for Documentary Filmmakers - NYWIFT panel] " (zoom in online)] Recently, Getty Images lost a lawsuit in Germany [" [http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,547234,00.html Lost lawsuit] " (German newsmagazine DER SPIEGEL)] . Getty claimed unauthorized usage, but the defendant could prove authorized usage as he had bought retroactively a license directly from the photographer.References
External links
* [http://www.gettyimages.com/ Getty Images]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
