Perplexity strikes multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images

AI search startup Perplexity has entered into a significant multi-year licensing agreement with Getty Images, allowing the company to incorporate Getty's visuals into its AI-driven search and discovery platforms. This development represents a pivotal moment for Perplexity, particularly in light of past accusations regarding content scraping and plagiarism, and reflects its commitment to forming more structured partnerships with content creators. According to sources familiar with the arrangement, Perplexity and Getty's collaboration has been ongoing for over a year. Although it wasn't publicly announced earlier, Getty had previously participated in Perplexity's Publishers’ Program, which aimed to share advertising revenue with publishers when their materials appeared in search results. The recent agreement goes beyond that initial partnership. This new deal is not a conventional lump-sum licensing agreement, as Perplexity does not develop its own foundational models, although the details of the terms remain undisclosed. The agreement seems to legitimize Perplexity's earlier usage of Getty's stock images, which had come under scrutiny due to plagiarism claims from various news organizations. One notable incident involved the startup using content from a Wall Street Journal article, which included an image sourced from Getty, raising questions about copyright infringement. In October, Perplexity faced further legal challenges when Reddit filed a lawsuit alleging extensive and unauthorized scraping of user-generated content, claiming the company bypassed technical barriers to access data. It's worth noting that Reddit has a data licensing agreement with OpenAI. Perplexity asserts that its new deal with Getty will enable it to present images more effectively while ensuring proper attribution with links back to the original sources in search results. Nick Unsworth, vice president of strategic development at Getty, emphasized that this agreement underscores the necessity of proper attribution and consent, which enhances AI-powered offerings. Jessica Chan, head of content and publisher partnerships at Perplexity, stated, "In an age of AI, attribution and accuracy are vital for understanding the world. Together, we are empowering users to find answers through compelling visual storytelling while ensuring they are aware of the content's origins and creators." This emphasis on attribution is part of Perplexity's broader strategy to counter copyright claims by arguing that its use of publisher materials, including content protected by paywalls or expressly prohibited from being scraped, falls under the doctrine of 'fair use' since publicly available facts do not qualify for copyright protection.