Thinkstock; is 2010 the year of merging licensing models?

Is 2010 the year when the distinction between Stock Photography licensing models disappears?

The lines are certainly blurring rapidly. First, Veer announced they are creating a single offering out of their microstock and Royalty Free offer on veer.com. Now Getty Images is launching an integrated subscription offer that contains images from their three main collections in a single licensing model.

Thinkstock is a new image subscription for ‘value conscious creative professionals’ . The images come with what Getty Images calls ‘world-class legal protection’.

“Thinkstock is the new industry-standard in the image subscription business,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images. “Thinkstock will change both the reality and customers’ perceptions of image subscriptions. By delivering an affordable and simple offering with excellent legal protection, Thinkstock provides one of the most complete subscriptions available anywhere, with premium, professional and user-generated imagery all in one place.”

At launch Thinkstock offers millions (it doesn’t clarify how many exactly) of Royalty-free images, vectors and illustrations. The images are sourced from Getty Images, iStockphoto and Jupiterimages. Just like with Veer it will offer both user generated content and photography from professionals (a distinction that is likely to disappear over time).

Subscriptions come in monthly ($249) or yearly ($2499) for access to the entire library (25 images per day). There will also be image packs for clients who do not want a subscription.

Thinkstock will protect customers against copyright claims and will defend, and be responsible for, any damages and expenses up to $10,000 for each image downloaded.