This is an issue with digital images - people *WILL* copy, share and post on the internet.  They have since the inception (which is one reason Microsoft's process is so convoluted and pricey now).  They will also copy & share things that were specifically and explicitly forbidden by the license they signed (same).

You may disagree with the concept, then you shouldn't sign the license (which is a whole issue unto itself with EULAs being printed in -5 pt script and running on for chapters).  

What is going to happen is that institutions selling photos, drawings and other things digitally will have to increasingly turn to software that blocks attempts to download, copy, and other wise use something.  Which will drive up costs and cut down on  usability, flexibility,  and customer satisfaction.  When some knowingly disregard promises they made, it hurts every body.

You may wish for better copies in PDF form (which isn't the best vehicle) and be able to ...well...make it portable (as the name implies) for your own purposes.  That is and likely will be fine.  It's the people who post such images on the internet (and or pass copies along to friends and manufacturers as their own) that kill offerings and drive up prices.  

I'd love to hear "solutions" (off-line or at Cocoa) as we have had to stop supplying some materials until some of this is resolved.  It *WILL* make images harder to view, it *WILL* make images harder to come by, it *WILL* result in "policing" - people insist that anything on the Internet must be free, and any material feeding it must be too. They also insist that anything they "own" is theirs to do with as they please.   That will kill more than you know.

People have said $6 is too much to pay for an 8x10 print.  I'd dearly love to see how they propose to store stock and to visit shows on less.  It can not happen.  Smithsonian charges $50 - or more.  Others do as well, mainly due to "pirates", but also to sensibly defray costs.  Feeling that it is the sellers problem (to pay for acquisition, maintenance, repair, and logistics) is simply uninformed or deliberately and willfully ignorant - and the reason many things available in the past & today will not be leaving archives - you'll have to visit them in order to look, and cameras and phones will not be allowed. 

At 10:44 AM 12/27/2019, Tim O'Connor wrote:

My issue with Kalmbach is their proprietary images - If the images were good quality in
a PDF format, I would get the entire MR/Trains/Classic/etc and load them onto my hard drive.

Bob Webber