35 Million Getty Image – Can you use them?

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By now you may have heard that Getty Images are making 35 million images available, for free, for you to use, without fear of being sued.

So, how is that going to work then? As with all images (or text) you will obviously have to provide correct attribution to the owner / source / copyright holder, and this is done for you by Getty Images as part of the ’embedded viewer’. When you find the image you want through the royalty free image search you can use the ’embed’ option.

The key here, from the Getty Images terms of use (embedded viewer), is the the availability of the images and that Getty reserve the right to remove the image without notice. You will also have to then retrospectively check your uses and make sure you remove them … but if you’ve used the embedded viewer, surely this would just show a blank or empty placeholder on your blog?

“Where enabled, you may embed Getty Images Content on a website, blog or social media platform using the embedded viewer (the “Embedded Viewer”). Not all Getty Images Content will be available for embedded use, and availability may change without notice.”

Here’s an example of an embedded image:

To find and use this image, here’s what I did:

  • Searched the ‘royalty free image’ archive for ‘London night’.
  • Once I’d found the image I liked, mouse-over the image to see the options available.Royalty Free Getty Images
  • Use the ’embed’ option (highlighted) to access and copy the HTML code to your blog or website.
  • Paste the code in to your blog or website. The image is displayed along with the required attribution and links.
  • As with all attribution and embedding, alter this in any way and you may incur the wrath of the owner or copyright holder, in this case Getty Images.
  • The embed also adds the social share buttons. If you don’t like it, don’t use Getty Images?

For more information on how you can use images from Getty, here are a few resources: