>Our takeaway here was that Getty use bots to find large collections of unique high-res images on sites that aren’t explicitly copyrighted, and just take them,

>Our takeaway here was that Getty use bots to find large collections of unique high-res images on sites that aren’t explicitly copyrighted, and just take them, on the odds that they’ll get away with it. While that is a distinct possibility, the more likely cause is that someone else is hoovering up high res images and are selling them to Getty. Getty doesn't make their own photographs. It's basically a stock image assignment store. https://www.gettyimages.com/workwithus https://www.gettyimages.com/workwithus People upload their own images, Getty sells them, and then Getty gives the uploader a cut of the selling price. Getty has no way of knowing if the uploader is themselves falsely claiming copyright. Not that this would excuse their tactics.