The badge is powered by structured data and part of an effort to help photographers get paid for their images.
Google’s “licensable” badge in Image results is now out of beta. Google also changed the “Usage rights” search filter to let users search for images with creative common or other licenses to address concerns about digital images being commodified and used for free.
Licensable badge. Google began testing the badge in February after working with the Center of the Picture Industry (CEPIC) and other news and image associations on ways to increase awareness of image licensing and help image owners sell and get credit for their photos.
“For results where the publisher or image creator provided licensing information, we will display a ‘licensable’ badge over the image,” Google said, “When you select a badged image to view, we will show a link to the license details of the image, and if provided by the publisher, you’ll also find a link to where you can purchase or license the image.”