After some recent consolidation, Getty Images is about the only entity left handling licenses of images. Radio stations have had this notion that just because they can play the music of a performer for free, they can grab an image of the artist(s) and plaster them on their web site for free. This is the Internet, after all.
Getty Images is to photographic images as BMI and ASCAP are to music – photographers turn over their rights to Getty, which then licenses the images and pays royalties. Buying from Getty prevents claims down the road. Post an image without permission and you’re in trouble. Getty is a “safe harbor” defense – if Getty screwed up, the photographer’s claim is against Getty. Getty licenses images for about $10 per image.
Pretty much every radio station owner has been hit with these lawsuits in the past year and being educated so they stop doing it.
But that is just the photographer’s rights to their work – if there is an identifiable person in the image, they have a publicity right to control how their image is used and require payment. It is close to impossible to find an image of Frank Sinatra, for instance as his family tightly controls his image and never allowed BMI to license his music. Sinatra did it his way.