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JacobLambda t1_izf27gs wrote

Reply to comment by cajunjoel in The Smithsonian's open access library, containing millions of digital assets under a creative commons license (you can even use them for commercial work)! by Rishloos

They already did this with public domain works from the Library of Congress and the result of the legal case was that because the works are public domain, Getty is free to put them behind a pay wall and even potentially DMCA people for using those public domain works (in the case that the image was sourced from Getty instead of direct from the source and then shared elsewhere).

Basically Getty can bully anyone into paying them for using a public domain work and even if you fight them in court, the only recourse would be that they drop the charge (but not covering court fees).

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