Getty Images unveils innovative embed feature for sharing of tens of millions of images

New embedded viewer will provide easy, legal access to Getty Images' imagery for non-commercial use

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Mar 05, 2014, 08:00 ET

NEW YORK and AUSTIN, Texas, March 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Global digital media company Getty Images today announces, for the first time, the ability for people to easily embed and share its imagery – at no cost – for non-commercial use on websites, blogs and social media channels through a new embed tool.

With people increasingly turning to imagery to communicate and tell their stories online, the embed capability opens up Getty Images' award-winning imagery for seamless sharing. Through the embed tool, individuals can draw on Getty Images' latest news, sports, celebrity, music and fashion coverage; immense digital photo archive; and rich conceptual images to illustrate their unique passions, ideas and interests. This innovation opens one of the largest, deepest and most comprehensive image collections in the world for easy sharing, thereby making the world an even more visual place.

"Images are the communication medium of today and imagery has become the world's most spoken language," said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. "Whether via a blog, website or social media, everyone is a publisher and increasingly visually literate.

"Innovation and disruption are the foundation of Getty Images, and we are excited to open up our vast and growing image collection for easy, legal sharing in a new way that benefits our content contributors and partners, and advances our core mission to enable a more visually-rich world."

Embedded images will include photographer attribution and, when clicked, will link back to www.gettyimages.com where the image can be licensed for commercial use. This will provide people with a simple and legal way to utilize content that respects creators' rights, including the opportunity to generate licensing revenue.

"You have to adapt to survive," said Kevin Mazur, celebrity photographer and director, and co-founder of WireImage Inc. "Evolving to embrace technology that encourages responsible image sharing is the way forward for the industry."

The embed capability will be supported anywhere HTML can be posted and users will also be able to share images on major social platforms including Twitter, as well as WordPress, which, with 75 million users, is the world's most popular blogging platform.

"This new Getty Images embed capability will open users up to a huge new creative repository in a simple, legal way," said Raanan Bar-Cohen, senior vice president of commercial services at Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com. "We look forward to seeing all the amazing ways that our users can take advantage of this new access."

This is the latest in a series of moves by Getty Images to harness technology and social media to drive broader exposure and usage of its content. Recent initiatives include a unique partnership with Pinterest, the fastest growing content sharing channel*, announced in October 2013, whereby Pinterest pays Getty Images a fee in exchange for metadata. Getty Images then shares these fees with its contributors, who also receive attribution when their content is used.

The new embed capability will be showcased during SXSW Interactive at Getty Images House at the Palm Door, 401 Sabine Street, Austin, from Sunday, March 9, through Tuesday, March 11. On Monday, March 10 at 10:00 a.m. CT, Getty Images will host a blogger meet up where the new functionality can be experienced. More information about the event can be found here.

For more information and visual assets that demonstrate how Getty Images' embed tool works, visit www.gettyimages.com/embed, or stop by the Getty Images Embed Blogger Bar at SXSW**.

* Source: Report from ShareThis, November 2013

**The Getting Images Embed Blogger Bar is open during SXSW Interactive, from Sunday March 9 through to Tuesday March 11. Getty Images House at the Palm Door, 401 Sabine Street, Austin, TX.

About the embed code
Getty Images offers the world's most comprehensive collection of high-quality images including news, entertainment, sports, archival and creative imagery. To embed these images, people can visit www.gettyimages.com, hover over an image in the search results or on the image detail page, and click the embed icon (< / >).The embedded images will be hosted on the gettyimages.com site, but they will appear in the context of the viewer on the site where they are embedded. The viewer includes the name of the photographer and image collection, and a link back to the image page on www.gettyimages.com where people can license it for commercial use. For full details on how embedded images may be used, please see our Terms of Use.

About Getty Images
Getty Images is among the world's leading creators and distributors of award-winning still imagery, video, music and multimedia products, as well as other forms of premium digital content, available through its trusted brands, including iStockphoto® and Thinkstock®. With its advanced search and image recognition technology, Getty Images serves business customers in more than 100 countries and is the first place creative and media professionals turn to discover, purchase and manage images and other digital content. Its best-in-class photographers and imagery help customers produce inspiring work which appears every day in the world's most influential newspapers, magazines, advertising campaigns, films, television programs, books and online media. Visit Getty Images at www.gettyimages.com to learn more about how the company is advancing the unique role of digital media in communications and business, and enabling creative ideas to come to life. For the stories behind our content and our technology, visit Getty Images InFocus at http://infocus.gettyimages.com. Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/gettyimages and Twitter at www.twitter.com/gettyimages.