I recently caught wind of a practice that (if it is true) paints a very bad picture for anyone looking to submit images to Getty images. Many people in the industry know that Getty has been courting new agency contributors for some time now and it makes sense that Getty would have a preference to work with an agency that could supply images by the thousands rather than an individual photographer who struggles to submit hundreds of images per year.  What we didn’t all know is that Getty has been encouraging these contributors to submit thousands of images in order to build up revenue for the contributor and then after the contributor is hooked, Getty has been forcing the contributor to convert to a more lucrative deal (for Getty) or else risk jeopardizing the relationship with Getty and all future sales. This is something that Wal-Mart has also been accused of doing and is one of the many gripes put forth by suppliers and activists alike.

I suppose it shouldn’t be a shock that Getty is pushing its contributors to work harder for less money, but there is also a claim that Getty is pushing contributors to sign exclusive deals that won’t allow contributors to work with its two biggest threats, Corbis and Jupiter Media. This type of deal is typically for Rights Managed (RM) images and not Royalty Free (RF) images but it makes me wonder how long it will be before Getty pushes it’s RF agents to sign a similar deal. If that happens, artist’s who wish to contribute photos and illustrations for stock will basically have to choose between working with Getty or, everybody else.

The sad thing is that unless the small to mid-sized agencies begin to work together and accept both RM and RF images non-exclusively so photographers can offer the same images through everyone who isn’t Getty, most photographer’s will have no choice but to bend over and take a deal on Getty’s terms. The simple fact is that an exclusive deal with Getty will generate 100 times the revenue of an exclusive deal with anybody else. It’s time for the smaller kids in the school-yard to band together and stand-up to the Bully who pushes the little guy simply because he can.

It may be too late to stop Wal-Mart but perhaps Getty can be pushed into doing the right thing.