The Seattle-based company Getty Images, which owns and license a vast library of more than 80 million images, has been sued for selling free photos online.
The American photographer, Carol Highsmith claims that the company have been wrongly selling copyright for over 18,000 of her photos that were already donated to the public for free, reported arstechnica. According to the reports, the photos being sold by Getty Images were already available to the public for free via the Library of Congress.
Getty and its affiliates not only sold unauthorised licenses of the Highsmith’s images, but they also sent threatening letter to others, who they believed have infringed the copyright, says the suit filed against the company.
The unauthorised move was found when Highsmith received a threatening letter for her own non-profit group, named This is America! Foundation. To which, the License Compliance Services, believed to be associated with Getty Images, demanded $120 in payment.
In a statement to artechnica, Sarah Lochting, Getty Images vice president for communications said that the lawsuit was "the first time Getty Images was made aware of the matter. We are currently looking into these allegations with the aim of addressing these concerns as soon as possible."
