"n appeal court in Paris has ruled that a photograph used in a high profile advertising campaign for the French National Tourist Office Federation (FNOTSI) was a deliberate copy of a Getty Images stock photograph." "The photograph used in the FNOTSI campaign had been commissioned specifically by advertising agency Prisme, and was taken by Laurence Frappa. Unlike Sanderson’s image, the blurred background was taken separately and digitally added in later.
“In court, Getty’s lawyers went over the [Frappa] picture bit by bit” Sanderson told EPUK. “That it was made from two separate images indicated that it was obviously constructed to match something. They said it was shot to match a drawing, which they produced in court, which turned out to be identical to my photograph.”
"Getty Images had originally sought €40,000 in damages – five times the cost of the appropriate licence. The final award of damages and costs is believed to be below that amount, but still substantially in excess of what it would have cost the design agency to use Sanderson’s original photograph.
The Getty Images price calculator states that a license to use Ian Sanderson’s image for a two year campaign across print, web and billboards would have cost around €8,000. But according to one source, Frappa charged Prisme just €1750 for the photography, expenses, and licensing."
Hmm... interesting.