[drcy]

Yes, it's not as if they got the images via google. You can see Getty's images via google, but they have watermarks. He had to be officially approved (I assuming having to demonstrate that he was in official capacity for the press or a publisher) by Getty just to get access to their image database.

I was once considering getting Corbis images for a book and went through the process. Though I never actually used or purchased on one the images (ain't cheap).

Plus, I would assume in most to all cases Getty has the images for publishing/press purposes only, and doesn't allow someone to make them into physical photos to sell-- even when the person paid for the rights to use the images.

And I edit my post to add that I didn't further notice that the login was stolen and the images were bought and sold under covertly using coded words. I'm no expert on the matter, but I would assume using stolen passwords to access a site's protected content is considered hacking . . . As Andrew stated, there are multiple layers.

Brings to mind the Cheers episode where Cliff's dad said he had to leave town because his job had gotten him into a little with the local police. Cliff said "What's your line of work?" and Cliff's dad said "Real estate fraud."