Who owns the world's pictures?
Published Friday, March 3, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News: "Štwo Seattle companies - one owned by Bill Gates and the other controlled by the grandson of late billionaire J.P. Getty - are competing for control of the world's images." Getty Images and Corbis each now control about 70 million images, from historical photos to sports and news photography, celebrity portraits and impressionist paintings. Through their Web sites, the companies market the rights to use images in their collections to businesses, commercial artists, media organizations and consumers."
Gates' Corbis Corp. owns Bettmann Archive, Saba Press Photos of New York, TempSport of Paris (sports photography), Sygma of Paris, and Ansel Adams' photos.
Mark Getty's Getty Images owns gettyone.com, Visual Communications, VCG, and Art.com.
Links
Geo-Images Project 
Images for teaching geography
The Picture Collection Time Inc.
45,000 Images Library of Congress
Corbis Bill Gates' effort to own all the world's images
Corbis Picture Experience search & send
Panoramic Photographs Library of Congress
Realtime Camera Paradise
Funky Fotos
Robert Altman Photos Not the film director.
Bill Atkinson Photography He invented HyperCard too!
Yahoo News Image Gallery