People in this thread keep claiming that because it is public domain, they can do whatever they want with it including license it, which is not true. They can certainly sell it, but a license is a legal instrument that grants usage rights, and Getty cannot grant such rights. To claim to do so is fraud.
Is that settled in a court of law?
It isn't at all obvious to me that is the case.
The linked article explicitly disagrees with that interpretation - because Getty doesn't make any claim what the license is: Getty and/or Getty US offers to let the user “Purchase a license” to a NASA photo of Saturn for $499.00 with “standard editorial rights”
Techdirt makes the point: it can't sell "copyright licenses," as that is a misrepresentation over the rights that Getty Images has -- but if it wants to try to get people to pay for stuff that is otherwise available for free, that's Getty's prerogative. and that seems a reasonable interpretation.
Indeed and other interpretation would imply some kind of negative copyright exists over the work (because it is restricting what you can do with it), and elsewhere in this thread it is pointed out that there is precedent for avoiding that[1]
Is that settled in a court of law?
It isn't at all obvious to me that is the case.
The linked article explicitly disagrees with that interpretation - because Getty doesn't make any claim what the license is: Getty and/or Getty US offers to let the user “Purchase a license” to a NASA photo of Saturn for $499.00 with “standard editorial rights”
Techdirt makes the point: it can't sell "copyright licenses," as that is a misrepresentation over the rights that Getty Images has -- but if it wants to try to get people to pay for stuff that is otherwise available for free, that's Getty's prerogative. and that seems a reasonable interpretation.
Indeed and other interpretation would imply some kind of negative copyright exists over the work (because it is restricting what you can do with it), and elsewhere in this thread it is pointed out that there is precedent for avoiding that[1]