pigsonthewing
Historic England have even stated explicitly "We're not claiming copyright in the RAF images":
https://twitter.com/HistoricEngland/status/15073771987470336...
(they actually were, but stopped doing so once I pointed out the facts to them.)
I know of two further sites where SmartFrame is being used to stop people "stealing" out-of-copyright images, and to label them as protected by copyright.
This is simply a land-grab, attempting to enclose the (digital) commons.
There's also the fact that, for images that do remain in copyright, there are exceptions in law allowing reuse for study, review, parody etc.
Not quite. Many Wikipedia infoboxes (and some other templates) use standardised class names from microformats such as hCard:
Who Has the Keys to Your Online Treasure Chests?
North Face tried to scam Wikipedia to get its products to top of Google search
You're using my images - hundreds of them, it seems - in breach of the licence. Where do I send my invoice?
I'm sure as you wish to be "on strong moral ground", you won't want to deny me what you owe me.