Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images • Hacker News Board

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#81

Post by weird-eye-issue » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:32 PM UTC

sarabad2021 wrote: post #13

RIP. I'm sure this acquisition will be great for the team but it's pretty obvious Getty will fill the site with tricky sponsored images. They will also likely start fading out new free images until the site is mostly stale or filled with sponsored image links. I could also see them playing around with image licensing so it's less obvious how you can use them. Welp, I guess there's always Pexels.

"it's pretty obvious Getty will fill the site with tricky sponsored images"

That is literally Unsplash's current business model already

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#82

Post by HajiraSifre » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

MikeTaylor wrote: post #35

Has anyone made a complete archive of Unsplash, so that at least when Getty shut it down ("in order to serve customers metter by focusing on our core business") the images that have already been uploaded there will remain available?

I think The Eye did archive it at some point.

Also, it might be hard to find a scraper, since Unsplash likes (or at least liked) sending "friendly" requests to authors of scrapers on GitHub to remove their repos.

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#83

Post by ElFitz » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC

> Unsplash will continue to operate as a standalone brand and division of Getty Images. The entire Unsplash team will be staying and building Unsplash in the direction we have been. The main difference now is we have access to the resources and experience of Getty Images to help accelerate our plans to create the world’s most useful visual asset library.

Sounds so familiar.

How many times have we heard this one? How many times has it remained true in the long run?

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#84

Post by dbrgn » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:40 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #53

jehb wrote: post #42

I'm going to instead see this as an opportunity for something better to emerge. My biggest problem with Unsplash is that they did not use a standard license that would easily be compatible with a Creative Commons or open source licensed work. If I incorporated images from Unsplash, suddenly I couldn't say "you're welcome to do whatever you like with my work." In fact, they used to use a CC0 license, but then changed,…

Creative Commons caused many issues in countries like Germany, with photographers publishing under CC with attribution clause, then hunting for sites using photos without or with not 100% correct attribution (in illegal pro-profit cooperations with lawyers) and suing the site owners for thousands of dollars. It really would have to be CC0, but even mentioning CC will raise a red flag for many now.

CC0 (with a zero, without the -BY part) is equivalent to public domain. I don't see how it would allow for the German popular sport of "Abmahnen" (threatening to sue). The reason it exists is that not all jurisdictions have a concept of public domain.

But yes, of course, if you use pictures under a CC-BY-* license, then you must comply with the terms (including attribution).

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#85

Post by corytheboyd » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:41 PM UTC

Apologies if it’s super obvious to the rest of the people here, but I cannot for the life of me figure out what Unsplash offers? It’s not at all clear from the website, at least to me. Not intended as an attack, more as a PSA to make your purpose extremely obvious for the dumb people like me :)

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#86

Post by ud_0 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:42 PM UTC

haxiomic wrote: post #74

My main association with Getty is their 'copyfraud' practises where they claim public domain images (NASA, Library of Congress etc) as their own and sell licenses[0]. They're also well known for aggressive acquisitions[1]. Perhaps this a good time to create a mirror [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Images#Claiming_copyrigh... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Getty_Images#Acquisitions

Based on this behavior, my paranoid side is expecting a wave of copyright notices and invoices being sent to every single site that is using Unsplash images right now.

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#87

Post by Cthulhu_ » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:43 PM UTC

dbrgn wrote: post #71

This reminds me of 500px. I used to be a huge fan of 500px. It was the most beautiful photography site on the internet, designed with attention to every tiny detail. It allowed you to share your photos under a CC license, presented them beautifully and had fantastic curated feeds with photos by fantastic photographers. In 2018 they were acquired by an investor company and partnered exclusively with Getty. As a contri…

It just reaffirms that one should not put all money on one horse, and to keep a copy of all of your work under your own management. With photography that's manageable, with e.g. youtube that can become challenging if you're a prolific video maker (especially nowadays with 4K, even 8K video footage).

Anyway, always have an exit.

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#88

Post by minxomat » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:44 PM UTC

teryyy wrote: post #79

dbrgn wrote: post #71

This reminds me of 500px. I used to be a huge fan of 500px. It was the most beautiful photography site on the internet, designed with attention to every tiny detail. It allowed you to share your photos under a CC license, presented them beautifully and had fantastic curated feeds with photos by fantastic photographers. In 2018 they were acquired by an investor company and partnered exclusively with Getty. As a contri…

https://www.pexels.com/ is another similar site, owned by Canva which seems to have kept its quality through the years.

Pexels is the best community for people who want to share their photos/videos (CC0). It's the worst community for monetising that in any way.

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#89

Post by matkoniecz » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:45 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #72

woah wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What was illegal about what they were doing?

The shared for-profit part of the scheme. It's one thing to hire a lawyer to get a license respected, it's another to institute to what amounts to a fraud scheme: Publish images with as hidden license requirements as possible, "hire" a lawyer for free with a profit sharing agreement, then sue who you can. That profit sharing agreement is illegal here, but hard to prove, and the Abmahnindustrie is actively protected b…

> Publish images with as hidden license requirements as possible

What exactly was going on? Have they published images in misleading way?

Or is it case of going after people who published images with "source: Internet"? Or case of attacking people who made honest effort to attribute author?

Because I am familiar with big corporations using freely licensed work and ignoring attribution requirements. For example Facebook is displaying map using OpenStreetMap data. OpenStreetMap license requires a clear attribution, visible to all users ( https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright ).

Facebook is ignoring that, Facebook employees claimed to be working on improvements, nothing was improved - attribution is still cleverly hidden.

The same with for example Snapchat.

Re: Unsplash is being acquired by Getty Images

#90

Post by minxomat » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 2:45 PM UTC

onli wrote: post #53

jehb wrote: post #42

I'm going to instead see this as an opportunity for something better to emerge. My biggest problem with Unsplash is that they did not use a standard license that would easily be compatible with a Creative Commons or open source licensed work. If I incorporated images from Unsplash, suddenly I couldn't say "you're welcome to do whatever you like with my work." In fact, they used to use a CC0 license, but then changed,…

Creative Commons caused many issues in countries like Germany, with photographers publishing under CC with attribution clause, then hunting for sites using photos without or with not 100% correct attribution (in illegal pro-profit cooperations with lawyers) and suing the site owners for thousands of dollars. It really would have to be CC0, but even mentioning CC will raise a red flag for many now.

CC0 is the norm on Pexels (based in Germany). It adds a clause to forbid reselling on other sites, but that's it.