Cuban photographer Alberto Korda’s iconic photograph of Che Guevara is considered “the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century”, yet Korda didn’t directly receive a cent for his work.

There were two significant reasons for this.

When Korda was asked by Italian publisher Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, who went on sell two million copies of the image, how much royalty money he wanted, Korda replied that since Feltrinelli “was a friend of the revolution, he didn’t have to pay.”

Secondly, Fidel Castro had refused to sign the Berne Convention, believing the protection of intellectual property [to be] imperialistic “bullshit”, which affected Korda’s copyright claim to the photos. Cuba eventually adopted the convention in 1997 however.

Even Andy Warhol profited with a version of the photo, though possibly not to the same degree as Feltrinelli had.

Ironically Korda did receive a payment of US$50,000, in an out of court settlement against the promoters of Smirnoff Vodka, in 2000, which he immediately donated to the Cuban health system.

Korda had bought the action as he believed Smirnoff’s intended use of Guevara’s image was excessively commercial, plus he was especially adverse to the image being used to promote alcohol.