Corbis + Costco & Getty

In 2010 I wrote a blog about the relationship between Costco & Corbis. I thought it worth repeating because, as expected, nothing has changed.

I’m a member of Costco as I’m sure a lot of you are. I like the savings and it has a photo division that I use for smaller projects. With the celebration of Thanksgiving this week, I was naturally distracted when my issue of “The Costco Connection” arrived in the mail. But on Saturday night, after a great day in New York City, something on the cover caught my attention. It was a travel photo with the caption “Picture This! Corbis Images from Costco photo centers”.

Rather than repeat what I read, let me provide a few highlights (direct from the magazine) – “the images have been curated specifically for and licensed to Costco by Corbis Images. For Costco members, there is no additional charge for the use of the images from the Art & Images Gallery collection. ‘The beauty of it is that Costco members can use these top images for all kinds of decorating projects and even for resale’ says Glen Hutchinson. Possible uses (and I’m paraphrasing here) ‘include anything for home or for business’.

Wow. So now anyone can pick a photo, make a 100  8×10 prints at $1.49 each and RESELL them without any of the profit given to the original photographer. Businesses, large and small, can save BIG when they need images to decorate the walls of their properties. Again I say, WOW!

I realize that the choice of photographs dedicated to this offer are probably small, however at one time RF was small and Microstock didn’t exist. So, with a little imagination, where will we be in a few years?

Recently, the bad news has continued with this headline – Getty agrees to license 5000 stock photos to Google – which essentially states that the photographers will be paid a “one time fee of $12” for use of their imagery. That’s all! Just $12 and Google is providing these photos for free use in Docs, Sheets and Slides. Forever.

(The photograph above is neither with Corbis or Getty or Costco. And never will be.)

March 1, 2013 | Categories: Commercial Photography, New Jersey Corporate Photographer, New Jersey Portrait Photographer | Tags: big ben, England, leisure, Life, lifestyle, london, Photography, photos, Pictures, stock photography, travel, vacation | Leave a comment