Using images from gettyimages without paying?

eric611

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Hello! For each of my blog post, the main image I use is from gettyimages. Basically I look for a good image, then search "gettyimages downloader" and download it without any watermark.

I do this because frankly other free stock websites are dogshit and I don't have the money right now to pay for this.

My question is - do you think this will affect me in the future, for example if I want to apply to Mediavine or AdThrive? Do they care about this?
 
I KNOW this will impact you in the future.

I hope you live in a 3rd world country that doesn't care about US lawsuits.

They will hunt you down, even if it's been 10+ years.

Even if you have removed the watermark, meta data, and altered the imaged a lot.

Don't do it.
 
Well, fuck.
Are there any better free alternatives for Freepik/Pixabay/Unsplash/Pexels for the featured image of blog posts?
 
Literally every single other image on the entire internet is a better alternative to what you're doing lol.

There's plenty of great photos on the free sites you mentioned, maybe edit them slightly and adjust the levels to make them a bit more unique, you'll be fine.

"The free images aren't good enough" is something you'll just have to deal with if free is your budget and you don't want to steal the images.

Featured images are insanely important for social media, and it's not stock stuff that tends to work well anyways (getty or otherwise), but if you're getting your traffic elsewhere (like search results pages where they don't see the image before they click anyways), I wouldn't worry about it too much other than using images I have permission to use and steering clear of Getty.

Sidenote... You mentioned the main images are from Getty... I just want to make sure you're using other images in your articles, too. You'd be surprised...

Here are some options...

Envato Elements has a ton of photos for a monthly fee, you can sign up for one month and stock up. I think they might have a trial, so you can make sure it'll work for your site.

You could steal them from social media instead of getty and probably have lower chances of getting absolutely reemed than if you're exclusively stealing getty images. It's still possible, but I'd imagine it's a lot less likely. But remember you still don't have any permission or rights to use these images. Don't be braindead about it like taking some professional photographer's selfie and using it for an article about "how to cure rectal bleeding" or what have you. Edit them a bit, maybe use two or three different pics side-by-side, change it up. If you're using these as main images for articles that are going on social media, they'll probably perform a lot better than obvious stock photos, too.

You could also try Flickr and search by creative commons license, do the attribution if they request it, and you're golden.

I strongly recommend nuking all the Getty stuff right now and then replace it when you can, I wouldn't keep it up a day longer. Make sure it's off your server, not just removed from the articles.
 
This is literally the dumbest thing you can do.

Gettyimages are a scam created exactly for people like you. They partner with shady lawyers around the world and then send huge bills for copyright breaches, that won't hold up in court, but most people don't know.

Why are you not just using Unsplash.com or similar? Wikicommons can often also be used.
 
I want to pile on just for the emphasis. This is a huge part of Getty's business model, which is to hunt people down and threaten to sue for using their images and to actually sue. They spider the web all day long looking for people who used their images without paying them first.

Stripping out EXIF data won't save you. Cropping and re-centering and changing color balances might, but it's not worth it. They have the money to chase you and while they might initially ask you to settle for more than they could actually get in court, they can win in court. Copyright violations are a clear-cut, case-closed kind of issue.

Of all the companies to choose to do this with, Getty Images is easily the worst. It's the specific one you don't want to do this to. Sounds like it's time to pick a few movies, grab a six pack, and replace every featured image you have (unless you're outside of the USA, in which case they could still file a cease and desist against your hosting company and the registrar and so forth).
 
Seriously for real op.

Getty is basically a the biggest baddest image honey pot copyright scammer shake down brigade in operation on the internet. If you're gonna rip images pick anyone else. They make their living squeezing people just like you. You're their business model.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies. You might've saved me from big trouble. Beginning to replace images now.
 
eric611 said:
Thanks everyone for your replies. You might've saved me from big trouble. Beginning to replace images now.
Click to expand...
While you are at it

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Some free/cheap alternatives I personally like:

https://unsplash.com/
https://pixabay.com/
https://www.freepik.com/
https://www.pexels.com/
https://www.flickr.com/search/ (make sure u play with the filters when searching here, choose the right license for u)
https://depositphotos.com/
 
Is it the same for sites like booking dot com? I mean, how are affiliates supposed to do anything if they can't use the images?
 
andemol said:
Is it the same for sites like booking dot com? I mean, how are affiliates supposed to do anything if they can't use the images?
Click to expand...
You pay the $1 or whatever to license the images and then you have zero problem.
 
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