Prints from Getty Images
 

About 10 years ago, a company set up at the CSA show in Chantilly to sell photos printed on the spot from Getty Images. They had several computer screens there that allowed customers to search the vast collection of images and make selections that a representative would then print out. Various sizes were available and were very affordable. I can’t recall the name of the company. Does anyone here remember the name and perhaps have their contact info? Or info regarding another company that offers direct to public sales of prints from Getty at reasonable prices? Thanks

I am going to assume that was illegal. Buying images on Getty is not cheap, you have to buy license rights for anything resold. For fun I just went on Getty and filled out a random photo like I was going to buy it for the intent of reselling. For that single photo it would've been $675.

In about 2017 Getty cracked down HARD on people stealing. Sued one guy for $21M

https://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=243359

It was clear that this company was authorized to do this. Perhaps related to Photofile? Trying to jog my memory here.

Photofile offshoot
 

That was a short lived venture which ran through Photofile, not Getty. It went under when Photofile did.

I can’t remember all the details, but there was a company I used years ago to order a photo from. It was like $20 or something and the photos were all ones found on Getty images.

I see. They were definitely licensed to sell Getty and I do think they were likely affiliated with Photofile. I didn’t know Photofile was kaput. I’d like to find a legit way to purchase Getty prints individually.

That's wild considering:

My photo:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...2f967b65c3.jpg

My Scan of my Photo:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...ce5fd362f6.jpg

Getty Images:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...8c985103c3.jpg

Yea there's tons of copyright infringement on Getty too, anybody can upload any image and claim they own the Copyright. It's why watermarking photos you share online is always a great idea.

I remember that show and vendor. At the time I had no idea the vendor was selling Getty images. At the National in Baltimore one year a vendor was selling tons of b&w photographs. The story was that Getty was buying the photo inventory of numerous newspapers and digitizing the content for both parties. After digitization, the photos were offered for sale. I purchased a photograph featuring Ted Williams and Yogi Berra discussing something.

I have also purchased a Ralph Branca photo directly from Getty and as the poster stated it was not cheap. After, I explained that the photo was for one time use at a card show, I received a bit of a discount but not much. I told Getty with prices that high they were missing out on sales from the collecting community. Given the option, I would opt for a b&w from Getty than the stock photos at any given show.

I'd wager the vast majority of pre war baseball photos on Getty are public domain. And the uploaders are just screenshotting images whenever they see them in high quality. Honestly should be illegal if not already.

The credit on Getty for this image is Transcendental Graphics which is the archive owned by Mark Rucker. At one point this photo must have been in his archive/collection (Mark is not a right click and save kind of guy, he has owned more important photography than most of us will ever see). Mark would be a very well known name to old time collectors, less so with those who more recently got into the field. He is responsible for illustrating many of the great pictorial histories of baseball and was the go to source for those publishing and in need of baseball/sports imagery for decades.

Any photo from before 1905 is public domain. Any photo published, or even printed with intent to publish, before 1930 is public domain. Getty doesn't necessarily own the images, but they do hold the rights to the scans in their archives.

Getty is a corporate beast, litigating to fiercely defend their interests while at the same time claiming copyrights they don't always own. Do Not Trust/Do Not Use unless absolutely necessary. For my book on Negro League baseball I was thrilled to be able to avoid them completely.