Well the guy probably couldn't make sales on a handful of mundane bear pics. Truly, iStock members should be outraged over this, as it is not original work of the submitter. I for one will drop a note to their support.

Addition:

Just sent a note of to their support. Take a look at this one

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/arts-and-entertainment/arts-symbols/5913441-vintage-signature-of-queen-elizabeth.php?id=5913441

They can't be serious in letting stuff like this through.

Public domain is an interesting concept.  But I guess that, if I can record a CD playing Chopin on the piano without having to pay rights for his music, anyone can get anything old and make money out of it. 

I find it strange however that this can be done so directly. This is just a digital copy of the engraving, not a print.  This is a very gray area to me.

About NASA images, when reading their terms I never got to the conclusion someone could use them commercially.  I wrote them about this and never got a reply.  I don't think it is right however to simply pick them from their website and sell them in posters or calendars.  Some people said their images are public domain beause their research is financed by the government, therefore it's money from tax-payers.  As I am not a USA tax-payer, I don't think I should be part of this "public".  I have however used one of their images, edited, to create another image for editorial use.  A bit of contradition, I guess.

Regards,
Adelaide

This has come up before on the site. IS had a library sign up as a contributor. All of the archived images that they hold were added to the collection. I can't remember the name of the group but it created quite a stir on the site.

The admin eventually came in to say that as long as you can prove that no one else has the copyright then you can use the image. Since then there have been  conflicting opinions by both inspectors and admins and most queries on the subject go unanswered.

According to admin there was a policy update regarding the NASA images but I don't know what thread title to look under for the information. Here is the link to the announcement that the policy will be updated. http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=62000&page=1

Many U.S. federal government, state government and local government agencies are forbidden by law to copyright anything they produce or have produced for them.  The fear being that agencies would use copyrights to prevent dissemination of information to the public. 

I created a web site for a city in Florida to handle procurement.  Since they were forbidden by law to own the rights to the software I created for them, I was able to retain the rights and resell it to other cities.  Had it been a company and not a government, they would have owned the rights based on "work for hire" laws.

It's important to note that not all agencies are so restricted.  The U.S. military owns the rights to all its logos and such (hence the recent controversy of licensing rights to a clothing manufacturer).

What about all the NASA photos that they allow?  Some of them have hardly been changed from the originals.  If they are allowed then perhaps these should be too?

NASA/JPL explicitely put their images in the public domain, even for commercial work (if you credit them). The policy of iStock has been very clear on this in a separate article. You can use them if the change from the original is significant enough, as part of a derivatory work. You can't sell them as is.

Yes... Getty has all rights to put their collections without reviews on iStockphoto...

I wonder how many images from Hulton Archives would pass istockphoto reviewers ;-)

Nevertheless, Scout can't be contacted due to Illustrators initial Application reviews except via sitemail which he/she might or may not read...

I'd like my 700 Vectors live on iStock as they've accepted all images from Hulton Archives!

Just my thoughts I felt worthy sharing ;-)

Interesting to see that there are so many "creative" contributors wanting to upload ancient prints...

Seems like people are running out of ideas or is it that the times make it necessary to get a hold of anything that sells as long as it is within the legal barriers...

Not necessarily. Some just want to do a favor and make these old fabulous prints available and get a couple of bucks for the work.
Because there is no other way to obtain these prints (except searching and finding the old books and scanning yourself), it would be a shame if all these prints were buried forever (and that's what's going to happen if they weren't offered as stock)