A Photo Plagiarized by Roger Ressmeyer

Photographer Roger Ressmeyer copyrighted a photo which was originally taken by the French Army. The fraudulently claimed copyright now belongs to Bill Gates' Corbis after their purchase of his collection in 1995. Corbis states that the photo was taken in the 1950s when, in fact, it was taken in 1970. It is titled "Mushroom Cloud During Atomic Weapons Test". Corbis doesn't state where the picture was taken, but it was taken at the Fangataufa atoll of the French Polynesia during France's nuclear test known as operation Licorne. Ressmeyer not only plagiarized a photo of the French state, he made a profit by doing so. In addition, Corbis has sold and continues to sell the photo, which is listed on its images catalog with stock ID RR030560. This is the photo as it appears in the Corbis catalog:


The Corbis photo is a cropped version of the original. Thanks to Pierre J. of Donnery, France, who mentions that prints of the photo could be purchased in Tahiti in the 1970s, we can have a look at the full size of the original. He has digitally restored a scan of one of the printed photos of the Licorne test, which he has uploaded to Flickr: