Probably more forgetful than malice. I can imagine them having tried 100's of designs/photographs, all licensed as "comps", to then pick the top 5 and use those

Probably more forgetful than malice. I can imagine them having tried 100's of designs/photographs, all licensed as "comps", to then pick the top 5 and use those in the ads. The last step should have been "relicense the photographs for ad use", but apparently this wasn't done. Maybe some intern forgot to file some papers. What I find curious is that the photographer's studio is aggressively going after profits made by Apple. Maybe the studio notified Apple they had the wrong license, something that I can imagine happens a lot in this world, and Apple gave them the finger. Or maybe the photographer wants to squeeze the most out of Apple's honest mistake. Maybe something in between.