The man who took the iconic Windows XP wallpaper photo has bitter regrets

FOX News ^ | 3-27-14 | Tero Kuittinen

[smokingfrog]

Lush green hills under a cobalt blue sky with precisely the right amount of fluffy clouds floating about. Who hasn’t been lost in reverie staring at the default Windows XP wallpaper, dreaming of Middle Earth or maybe a weekend in Cork County?

Yet that shot of a bucolic paradise has turned into a very personal nightmare for Charles O’Lear, the man who captured the iconic photo and sold it to Microsoft.

O’Lear took a one-time payment for the photo rather than trying to negotiate a license fee. Even a tiny fee per Windows XP license would have yielded him a hefty payday over the years.

Surprisingly enough, the photograph was actually taken on the side of a highway in Sonoma, California, rather than Ireland or New Zealand. According to a somewhat hazy estimate by The Sydney Morning Herald, a billion people have viewed the scene since Microsoft bought it.

[smokingfrog]

[knarf]

I HAVE stared at it and I DID think it was Ireland

[Mount Athos]

“Even a tiny fee per Windows XP license would have yielded him a hefty payday over the years. “

They would have never agreed to any per license fee, they would have simply used a different picture.

[Gay State Conservative]

I've been thinking of licensing my posts here on FR.I figure that even at $0.0001 per viewing of my posts will net me dozens of dollars over the next 50 years.I'll be contacting Jim Robinson soon with my demands.

[Riley]

Here it is later on:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Bliss_%28location%29.jpg

[driftdiver]

Freeper pay per click

[smokingfrog]

Planted with grapes?

[Chuckster]

One bad business deal? No loss incurred? Get over it!

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

Somehow I always thought that photo looked really gay, like at any minute Twinky winky the Teletubby will start prancing around on the hill.

[Riley]

Right country for it. Been over Highway 12 a million times, guess I don’t have that photographer’s eye or the business sense to sell the view to the whole of planet earth.

[csmusaret]

I thought it was from TeleTubbies

[ClaytonP]

They would have never agreed to any per license fee, they would have simply used a different picture.

Yup, this is not a case of loosing a winning lottery ticket.

Pretty nature pictures are a dime a dozen.

Instead of griping about "lost" money, he should be enjoying whatever publicity he can get from his picture being selected to advance his name brand.

No he looks like just a whiner.

[markoman]

TeleTubbies was one of the creepiest things I’ve seen
anywhere.

[dead]

You got paid, whinger.

[SueRae]

Hmmmm. That photo always reminded me of the drive north to Boulder, Co.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I can’t even sell my witty FR posts 3 for a quarter.

[The Cajun]

Always thought that was a great picture, very relaxing to look at.

Wallpaper on my old computer.

The guy got a few bucks off of Bill Gates inc., that's more than most of us will ever do, he should just shut up and enjoy :)

[9YearLurker]

Exactly. I’m tired of this argument. The guy who designed the Rolling Stones logo mopes over the same thing.

You get paid well for your work—and whatever level you agree to is being paid well—and you should honor your contract.