Getty doesn't own anything. It is a company which has even been known to sue the original creators of images for images they never licensed to Getty. They hav

Getty doesn't own anything. It is a company which has even been known to sue the original creators of images for images they never licensed to Getty. They have been trawling the web for images and making spurious claims of rights over them and questionable legal threats. The business model only makes sense in an environment where corporations lobby for laws enabling them to seek rents over resources which have been freely available and whose copyrightability is even questionable. Frankly I put them up there with patent trolls and those evil corporations which claim patents over seeds which farmers round the world have developed and improved over generations. But in a legal and commercial environment where rounded corners can be patented why should we be surprised?