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The public library in Shepherdstown, West Virginia
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The town built the structure as a market house in 1800. In 1845 the International Order of Odd Fellows added the second story in exchange for a 999-year lease. After the town market closed in 1854, the town enclosed the stalls with brick exterior walls, and the building became a firehouse. In 1926, the Shepherdstown Women's Club obtained permission to use the building as a library, sharing the premises for some years with the town jail. The Shepherdstown Library, Inc. had the Odd Fellows' 999 year lease voided in 1962. A unique characteristic of the building remains the Odd Fellows' symbol of the Seeing Eye, peering at passersby from a semi-circular niche above the front door. Some say the eye moves.
Credit line: West Virginia Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.
Purchase; Carol M. Highsmith Photography, Inc.; 2015; (DLC/PP-2015:055).
Forms part of: West Virginia Collection within 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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