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Robert Griffin is no spray-painting vandal. Like thousands of other visitors to the "Cadillac Ranch" along Old U.S. Route 66 outside Amarillo, Texas, he is encouraged to bring a along a spray can to add a touch or two to the unusual public art installation. Thus the overall look remains the same over time, but the details change daily

Robert Griffin is no spray-painting vandal. Like thousands of other visitors to the "Cadillac Ranch" along Old U.S. Route 66 outside Amarillo, Texas, he is encouraged to bring a along a spray can to add a touch or two to the unusual public art installation. Thus the overall look remains the same over time, but the details change daily

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The sculpture, a roadside attraction in the Texas panhandle, was executed by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm. It consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of mid-20th century Cadillacs; the tailfins) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.
Credit line: The Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Gift; The Lyda Hill Foundation; 2014; (DLC/PP-2014:054).
Forms part of: Lyda Hill Texas Collection of Photographs in Carol M. Highsmith's America Project in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive.

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/)

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Date

01/01/2013
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Contributors

Highsmith, Carol M., 1946-, photographer
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Source

Library of Congress
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