Want to get paid for your photos?

'Purple water lily', posted to Flickr by Subramanian Kabilan, a photographer based in Tamilnadu, India

One of the saddest things about Flickr, the photo-sharing website, is that the many stunning pictures that are published on it do not make their owners any money. That may be about to change.

Flickr, which is owned by Yahoo!, has announced a partnership with Getty Images, the giant photo and video distributor, which will allow amateur photographers to be paid the same rate as professionals for their work.

Getty editors will begin combing through the more than two billion pictures stored on Flickr, and invite certain photographers to contribute to a 'Flickr-branded' collection that Getty will then make available to its corporate customers.

Those who are chosen will get paid the same rate as do photographers who are under contract with Getty - typically $150-180 if a publisher wants exclusive use of a photo, or $50 for non-exclusive use.

Jonathan Klein, the chief executive of Getty Images, said that Flickr - which has more than 27 million members - was "an ideal partner" for Getty as it moved to offer an even broader range of high quality digital content to its customers. Many Flickr members already pay a subscription to have a professional-looking photo galleries on the site.

Mr Klein said that Getty would pay Flickr, which in turn would make payments to members, but did not disclose any more details. He said, however, that financially the deal would be immaterial for both Yahoo! and Getty.

The service will be rolled out in the next few months.