Ethics

PictureDesk is an "old economy" company that sells rights for images and pictures. It is known for its exorbitant high prices for using images on the internet for which it owns the rights.
Just like a "patent troll" it does not seem to produce anything (except for invoices) - it just sells rights on behalf of others. That their high prices does not seem to harm the company, is in our opinion another indication for the "Vetterwirtschaft" (nepotism, patronage) that is still a plague in Austria.
We regard this company as being unethical: a case is known where this company made a picture of its CEO available to news agencies (allegedly for free), and when they used it, charged them.
But selling picture rights does not seem to be the core business of this company. Instead it seems to make a lot of money with cashing money from private persons and small companies for alleged use of pictures it claims to have the rights on. Very problematic however is, that it also does so for foreign companies with a doubtful reputation, and even claims to have rights on pictures that are plagiarism themselves. For example, it claims to own the rights of the picture designated T495/0064 which (in our opinion) is a clear plagiarism of the picture "March of Progress" orginally published in a Time-Life book by the anthropologist F. Clark Howell. APA PictureDesk is charging the exorbitant price of € 180 (per year!) for this plagiarism picture in publications. In our opinion, this is a clear case of dealing in stolen intellectual property!
The case is currently under investigation by the Austrian prosecuting attorney. Also Time-Life seems to prepare a court case against this company.