<p>Dear forum members, <br>
I was very delighted when a month ago I stumbled upon my <a href="http://www.xdreamphoto.com/works.html">image </a>in an internet magazine that was used by Microsoft for their current Windows 10 campaign. This image was used in Microsoft`s central presentation of their Windows 10, albeit only in a short sequence, and consequently for <a href="http://news.microsoft.com/windows10story/">ads</a>, <a href="
and <a href="/bboard/">screenshot </a>tutorials. The image was also made available for <a href="http://www.windows10update.com/2014/12/download-windows-10-build-9901-wallpapers/">download</a> on many platforms.<br>
The image, a snow covered Austrian landscape in the county of Salzburg, was delivered to Microsoft via Getty Images as a rights protected image as all of my images are. My European Stock Agency, Picture Press, is a "quality agency" that gets my images on an "exclusive" basis.<br>
So far so good. When I asked my stock library in Europe, that had delivered the image to Getty Images, about the kind of licence I was told that this had been a consumer download:<br>
Usage: Product design - Software and video games<br />Start date: Jan 14, 2015<br />Territory: World<br />Industry: Computer Software<br />Exclusivity: No Exclusivity<br />Delivery Method: Customer Download<br />Release Information: No release required<br>
The image made its way around the world as you easily will find out if you make a simple google search, MS Austria even congratulated me for the "shot of my life".<br>
Today I got the account from my stock agency: 43 €, about 50 USD.<br>
That made me speechless: MS had licenced an image for product design and then started a viral campaign using my image as the central image. I can only hope that this was a mistake by MS and not intended.<br>
What do you think, what should I do? Qualified advice very welcome.<br>
Finally the link to the original image and the MS version of that images on my <a href="http://www.xdreamphoto.com/works.html">website</a><br>
Regards<br>
Franz</p>