It was interesting to listen to Alan Newman’s presentation at the Association for Historical and Fine Art Photography conference last week announcing that images of works of art from the National Gallery Washington in the public domain can now be downloaded and used for free for any use in future. He reported that the economic model of charging for images no longer works and that newer revenue streams are now being explored.
https://images.nga.gov/en/page/show_home_page.html
This presentation was then followed by James Davis of Google Art demonstrating how Google is attempting to bring together a single point of entry to exploration of the cultural heritage and archive sectors.
http://www.googleartproject.com/en-gb/
It appears that if you follow the thread of the combination of these two presentations photographers and cultural institutions may need to rethink their future financial models.
Colin White Photography and Digital Imaging 