Google to make changes on image copyright credits

CALIFORNIA, U.S. - In a bid to tighten its policy, Google has said that it will now make copyright credits more apparent in its image search.

Users of Google images will soon notice a change in searches featuring professional, copyrighted photos.

The move comes after Google said that it had reached an agreement with Getty Images as per which, the search giant will get a multi-year license for Getty imagery.

The deal also puts an end to the photo company’s legal complaint with the European Commission over copyrights and attribution.

It is as part of this deal that Google will be adjusting its image search to make copyright disclaimers for photos more prominent.

The search engine giant will also remove the “view image” links to prevent direct downloads. 

Getty Images CEO Dawn Airey said in a statement, “We will license our market-leading content to Google, working closely with them to improve attribution of our contributors’ work and thereby growing the ecosystem.”

In April 2016, Getty first lodged its complaint with the European Commission, accusing Google of making it simple for users to view and download “high-resolution, copyrighted content.”

The company alleged that Google was essentially enabling piracy and copyright infringement. 

It had then claimed that a simple image search will let users grab a high-quality copyrighted photo without visiting the host’s website or paying for the rights.

And even though Google has the option for searches to filter images by their licensing rights, it is hoping that these new changes will help make it more clear when a copyrighted photo is being displayed.