Are any of our images safe if we can’t even trust the big professional sites?
Carol M. Highsmith has donated her life’s work to the Library of Congress, and discovered the misuse of her images when Getty was trying to charge her $120 for using one of her own photographs online.
The suit was filed on July 25 in the Federal Court of New York, Ars Technica reported. Highsmith’s complaint contends that Getty and Alamy are guilty of the “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs, and “have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people.”
While Getty Images dropped its initial demand that Highsmith pay $120 for the use of her own photo, that does not appear to have stopped the company from continuing to try and profit off her work. “The Defendants’ bad faith business practices have proven to be so lucrative, their behavior has apparently continued unabated,” notes the suit, denouncing Getty and Alamy for their “brazen and extortionate conduct.”
If Highsmith’s billion-dollar demand seems high, it’s because she’s asking for three times the normal damages, which would be $25,000 for each violation, or $46,887,500. She can do that because Getty was found to have violated the same copyright law before. In 2013, photographer Daniel Morel, who found that the agency had begun charging for images he had posted on Twitter, won $1.2 million in his lawsuit.
Read the full article over at artnet news.
Source: artnet news
I hate Getty Images. They have bought out all the “little guys” over the years and jack prices way up. Would tickle my heart to see them lose this lawsuit.