Getty Images and Flickr are working together to establish the first commercial licensing opportunity for photo-enthusiasts in the Flickr community. The Flickr collection will feature photography selected by Getty Images editors based on their expertise in licensing digital content and insights into customers’ needs. In the next several months, Getty Images will begin inviting selected Flickr members who will have the choice to participate in the collection.

So normal Flickr fans won’t likely see any difference but those who have made a big name on Flickr already might well get selected to be a part of the collection.

While it is a good first step, but let’s see an option where we can all get involved, eh? Apparently “Getty customers usually pay between $29 and $200,000 for an image, depending on how freely they may use it.”, I am sure there are a lot of us who would like in on that kind of action even if it is a slim chance any of our pictures will sell.

It’s clear where the opportunity for Flickr and their users is, and Getty gets access to a bigger inventory. There could be some political fallout for Getty though. As Thomas Hawk says My own expectation would be that current Getty “Pros” are probably none too happy about having a new horde of “amateurs” jointing their ranks and competing with their own image sales.

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