Statue grouping of three prominent Mississippians in Jackson, the capital city of the state. They are Eudora Welty (foreground) a short-story writer and novelist who richly described life in the American South; Richard Wright (right), an author of novels and stories about the plight of fellow African Americans during the early 20th Century; and William Faulkner (left), whose idiosyncatic novels about the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on the Lafayette County of his youth, depicted the rich tapestry and unforgettable characters of the Old South of his youth

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/)