The picture agency giant “Getty Images” and the search engine operator Google have been at loggerheads for years. This dispute has been off the table since the beginning of the year due to the conclusion of a comprehensive license agreement.
Both parties are extremely satisfied. According to a press release from Getty: “This agreement is the foundation for a very productive and collaborative partnership between the two companies.”
Google’s Engineering Director Cathy Edwards is also positive: “We are very pleased to have concluded such an agreement with Getty Images. We will use their images immediately for a variety of our products and services .”
Years of dispute between Google and Getty
The two internet giants have been involved in a fierce dispute for years. Google has used its image function to increasingly remove the image files of third-party websites from their context and provide them in ever better quality. Getty saw this as an infringement of its copyrights. The dispute even went so far that Getty lodged a complaint with the EU Commission. The accusation: Google had abused its market power. The ever-improving quality of the preview images meant that there was no longer any reason for users to visit the actual website. This complaint to the EU Commission has since been withdrawn.
Changes announced at Google
The conclusion of the license agreement will lead to some changes at Google. In future, the image search will show the origin of the images more clearly. In addition, the photos will no longer be so conspicuously linked directly outside the context of the websites.
Google wants to pay more attention to copyrights in future
In addition, the copyright notice: “The images may be protected by copyright” is now displayed directly below the accessed photo. From now on, two functions lead to the website of the photo provider; the “Visit” function and the “Open image in new tab” function. The function to open the photo individually in a link has been completely removed, which means that the search engine operator Google is trying to make it less easy to copy the images. It is not yet clear whether this will apply to all search results in future or only to those of the Getty photo agency.
