Photographer behind 'iconic' Windows XP wallpaper regrets missing out on royalty stream

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ANI Washington
Last Updated : Mar 29 2014 | 12:06 PM IST

The photographer, who sold his iconic photograph to Microsoft for a one-time payment is now regretting his decision of not negotiating for a license fee.

The picture, showing lush green hills under a cobalt blue sky with precisely the right amount of fluffy clouds floating about, has been adorning the Windows XP default screens for years.

However, that shot, taken on the side of a highway in Sonoma, California, has turned into a personal nightmare for photographer Charles O'Lear, who could have basked in the bounty with even a tiny fee per Windows XP license, Fox News reports.

The report said that when Microsoft originally licensed an operating system to IBM all those decades ago, the computer giant wanted to buy the platform for a one-time fee.

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First Published: Mar 29 2014 | 11:51 AM IST

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