Perplexity strikes multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images | TechCrunch | Goose Pod

Authors: Rebecca Bellan

Publisher:

TechCrunch

Published: 10/31/2025

Language:English

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Elon

Good morning 45, I'm Elon, and this is Goose Pod for you. Today is Tuesday, November 04th, 23:37. Joining me, as always, is the insightful Taylor Weaver.

Taylor Weaver

And I am absolutely thrilled to be here! We are diving into a really juicy topic today: Perplexity strikes a multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images. It's a huge story that's got everyone talking in the tech world!

Elon

Alright, 45, the big news: Perplexity, the AI search startup, has inked a multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images. This is a massive pivot, granting them permission to display Getty's images across their AI tools. It’s a direct response to past content scraping allegations, signaling a move towards formal, legitimate content partnerships.

Taylor Weaver

And it's a brilliant strategic move! Getty's shares soared 50% in early trading after the announcement, which tells you everything about market confidence. This isn't a traditional lump sum; it’s a smart, integrated approach. Jessica Chan from Perplexity nailed it, saying 'Attribution and accuracy are fundamental' to understanding AI content.

Elon

Right. It legitimizes Perplexity's prior use of Getty photos, which had previously raised copyright questions. This deal isn’t just about access; it's about setting a new standard for consent. Nick Unsworth of Getty highlights the importance of 'properly attributed consent,' which is crucial for enhancing AI products responsibly.

Elon

Perplexity's journey to this deal is quite the saga. They've faced a barrage of copyright lawsuits from major publishers like Japan's Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun, accused of unauthorized content use. It's a classic example of disruptive innovation clashing with established intellectual property norms, really.

Taylor Weaver

Indeed, but to their credit, Perplexity isn't just ignoring it. They’ve launched a revenue-sharing model, partnering with outlets like TIME and Der Spiegel. This is their strategic move to integrate with content creators, showing a narrative of evolving from conflict to collaboration, which I find quite compelling.

Elon

And Getty Images isn't new to this fight either, having sued Stability AI over image scraping. So, their decision to partner with Perplexity is a significant shift. It indicates a move away from pure litigation towards a more pragmatic, licensing-based approach for AI integration, a true testament to adapting to change.

Taylor Weaver

Absolutely, and the market responded with Getty's shares soaring 70% premarket! It's clear investors see the value in this blueprint for ethical AI content sourcing. This deal, combined with Perplexity's potential $9 billion valuation and their plans for a new ad model, truly demonstrates the urgent need and potential for compliant AI monetization.

Elon

Let's be blunt, Perplexity has faced a barrage of allegations. Publishers like Britannica claim their 'answer engine' is 'free-riding,' cannibalizing traffic and undermining their content creation. It’s a direct challenge to how AI platforms leverage existing intellectual property, a truly disruptive legal battle.

Taylor Weaver

And it's not just about traffic, Elon. News Corp has sued for 'massive illegal copying' from publications like the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times even issued a cease-and-desist. The core conflict is around unauthorized scraping, paywalled content, and even AI-generated 'hallucinations' undermining brand integrity. It's a huge strategic and ethical quagmire.

Elon

These lawsuits are more than just disputes; they're existential threats. Some seek the destruction of infringing datasets, which could cripple an AI's knowledge base. This highlights the immense pressure on AI companies to legitimize their content sourcing, a challenge that this Getty deal aims to mitigate, but doesn't erase.

Elon

The impact of these AI copyright battles is immense. Getty's lawsuit against Stability AI, involving over 12 million images, highlighted the 'extraordinarily expensive' nature of this litigation. Getty's CEO even admitted spending 'millions on a single case.' This underscores the massive challenges in protecting intellectual property in the AI age.

Taylor Weaver

It’s a huge financial and ethical burden. This leads to a fundamental economic imbalance where AI platforms capture value, absorbing revenue that should go to creators. This Perplexity-Getty deal, in a way, is a response, trying to establish a precedent for AI firms to actually pay content creators through proper licensing, shifting the narrative towards fairness.

Elon

The future clearly points to AI content licensing becoming a mandatory cost. Perplexity’s 80% profit-sharing model is a start, but industry standards like RSL, offering machine-readable licensing, could be the real disruptor. It's about legitimizing content acquisition, a critical step for the entire ecosystem.

Taylor Weaver

Indeed, Elon. These legal and technological shifts are creating a large-scale data licensing market, with tailored agreements and subscription models. The goal is clear: ensure creators are compensated, foster compliance, and build a sustainable, ethical AI landscape. It's a strategic evolution for content and AI alike.

Elon

That wraps up our deep dive into Perplexity's multi-year deal with Getty Images. It's a fascinating look at AI, copyright, and the evolving future of content creation.

Taylor Weaver

Indeed! Thank you, 45, for joining us on Goose Pod today. Keep an eye on this space; the narrative is just beginning to unfold, and we'll be here to tell you all about it!

Perplexity has secured a multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images, allowing them to use Getty's vast image library in their AI tools. This move addresses past copyright concerns and signals a shift towards legitimate content partnerships, aiming to legitimize AI's use of existing intellectual property and establish new industry standards for consent and compensation.

Perplexity strikes multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images | TechCrunch

Read original at TechCrunch →

AI search startup Perplexity has signed a multi-year licensing deal with Getty Images, which gives it permission to display images from Getty across its AI-powered search and discovery tools. The deal marks a notable shift for the company, which has been hit by allegations of content scraping and plagiarism, and signals an effort to establish more formal content partnerships.

Perplexity and Getty have been working together for more than a year, a source familiar with the deal told TechCrunch. Though it was never announced, Getty was part of Perplexity’s Publishers’ Program, a plan to share ad revenue with publishers when their content surfaced in a search query, the source said.

Today’s agreement is a new deal. A source told TechCrunch it’s not a traditional lump sum licensing deal, since Perplexity doesn’t train its own foundational models, but would not elaborate on the terms. Perplexity’s agreement with Getty appears to legitimize some of the startup’s previous use of Getty’s stock photos.

Perplexity has come under fire within the last year for a series of plagiarism accusations from several news organizations. In one case, the startup was called out for pulling content from a Wall Street Journal article, including the Getty photo in that piece. At the time, several outlets questioned whether Perplexity’s use of the images constituted copyright infringement.

A source last year told TechCrunch that Perplexity was working on an agreement with Getty, but we were unable to confirm the deal after reaching out to the stock image giant several times. More recently, Reddit sued Perplexity in October, alleging “industrial-scale, unlawful” scraping of user content and circumventing technical measures to access data.

Reddit has a data licensing agreement with OpenAI. Perplexity says its Getty deal will help it better display images and include credits with links back to the original source whenever images show up in search results. Nick Unsworth, vice president of strategic development at Getty, said the agreement “acknowledges the importance of properly attributed consent and its value in enhancing AI-powered products.

” “Attribution and accuracy are fundamental to how people should understand the world in an age of AI,” Jessica Chan, head of content and publisher partnerships at Perplexity, said in a statement. “Together, we’re helping people discover answers through powerful visual storytelling while ensuring they always know where that content comes from and who created it.

” Perplexity’s emphasis on attribution is part of its strategy of defending against copyright accusations by arguing its use of publisher content — including content behind a paywall or that publishers have explicitly indicated they don’t want scraped — constitutes “fair use” because publicly available facts are not copyrightable.

Rebecca Bellan is a senior reporter at TechCrunch where she covers the business, policy, and emerging trends shaping artificial intelligence. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, Bloomberg, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, and other publications. You can contact or verify outreach from Rebecca by emailing rebecca.

bellan@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at rebeccabellan.491 on Signal. View Bio