[Mikael Olrog]

Many of us have struggled to gain permissions etc to publish photos, but what real cases do we know of people:
A) Claiming the copyright of a photo that someone else has published?
B) Succesfully claiming financial compensation for it having been used?
C) Going to court to claim compensation?

What I'm looking for is what real consequenses or risks do you/we as authors run when using photos that we think we have valid permission to publish in our work and publish in good faith? This is an important issue and since the agreements you sign with publishers usually tend to make the author accept any financial consequences of any copyright disputes caused by the published work.

Secondly, if someone starts a process for compensation, would that process have to be initiated in the country that the publisher is based in, or can it be started in for example the country the person who claims the compensation is based?

A third question regarding the photo collections that BA-MA, Deutsches Museum etc have which they claim copyright for and charge heavily for. Can they really make a court case regarding any of their photos in their collections? My guess is that more than one of their photos can be located in other collections so it can be questioned if they really are right in claiming these copyright fees (It's ok to claim a fee for making a duplicate or scan). Have they ever made any processes to claim compensation for photos used without their permission which they claim to be theirs?

Obviously my question is limited to photos of WWII German/axis aircraft.
/Mikael