Getty Images will be contacting select Flickr users with an eye to licensing those pictures to Getty's clients. Flickr is a little odd in that most image websites offer mechanisms to monetize those pictures through selling prints, etc. I guess Flickr is more comfortable with the $25 a year model for professional users.
The Boudist offers a professional photographers opinion on the new partnership between Getty/Yahoo/Flickr:
I don't put photos on Flickr with a view to selling them. Many photos i couldn't sell because of copyright issues or existing licensing deals. But a bit like bloggers using google adsense on a personal blog, it wouldn't hurt to get a bit of extra pocket money should someone wish to buy a license to use a photo i already took. I already upload everything in hi-res, i title, caption and keyword the images. It's all ready to go.It is probably a mistake, IMO, for Getty to only license select photographs, probably easier just to try and license the whole lot. You never know what reasons people will want to license a photograph for. (reply)
