Queen Mary ship, Long Beach, California

RMS Queen Mary is an ocean liner that sailed on the North Atlantic Ocean from 1936 to 1967 for the Cunard Line built by John Brown & Company in Clydebank, Scotland. Queen Mary sailed on her maiden voyage on 27 May 1936. During WWII Queen Mary was refitted for passenger service Along with the sister ship Queen Elizabeth two ships dominated the transatlantic passenger transportation market until the dawn of the jet age in the late 1950s. Queen Mary was officially retired from service in 1967. She is preserved in Long Beach, California, United States. The ship serves as a tourist attraction featuring restaurants, a museum, and a hotel.

In 2015, documentary photographer Carol Highsmith received a letter from Getty Images accusing her of copyright infringement for featuring one of her own photographs on her own website. It demanded payment of $120. This was how Highsmith came to learn that stock photo agencies Getty and Alamy had been sending similar threat letters and charging fees to users of her images, which she had donated to the Library of Congress for use by the general public at no charge. In 2016, Highsmith has filed a $1 billion copyright infringement suit against both Alamy and Getty stating “gross misuse” of 18,755 of her photographs. “The defendants [Getty Images] have apparently misappropriated Ms. Highsmith’s generous gift to the American people,” the complaint reads. “[They] are not only unlawfully charging licensing fees … but are falsely and fraudulently holding themselves out as the exclusive copyright owner.” According to the lawsuit, Getty and Alamy, on their websites, have been selling licenses for thousands of Highsmith’s photographs, many without her name attached to them and stamped with “false watermarks.” (more: http://hyperallergic.com/314079/photographer-files-1-billion-suit-against-getty-for-licensing-her-public-domain-images/)