Potential pay day for the Flickr community

Good news for Flickr members everywhere is the news that image-library giant Getty Images is following rival Photo-Shelter in trawling through Flickr to spot pictures that it can sell on members' behalf.

Anyone who has used creative commons (and that includes most creative agencies like ourselves), will know that it opens the door to tens of thousands of images taken by amateur photographers and posted on Flickr, which are available for commercial use.

A lot of these are as good as what you'd find on a commercial image bank, if not better, and they are currently being given away by their creators for free.

The back story is the fisticuffs between Getty and Photo-Shelter about the rates each pay to Flickr members. Photo-Shelter sarcastically congratulates Getty for following its lead, but says Getty is basically trying to invite a select few Flickrites into the fold so that it can keep it's business model intact.

The bottom line for Flickr members though is that those amateur snaps you've posted up online may well end up making you a lot of money.

Source, Ad Pulp. Photo, Wai Ti on Flickr