The skeptic in me thinks this was planned. Yellow submarining given that the author is selling something
its technically possible to plan, but just as likely to happen on accident. And its definitely a wonderful example why the idea of intellectual property for photographs is a flawed concept.
But its not an easy topic and photographers still need to earn their living. That means some protection from publishers that just take their shots without paying.
You have to maintain a basic level of trust in the source of information if you're going to have any interesting thoughts about it. Finding actual evidence of fakery would be worthwhile, or checking some features and reporting how you found none would be too. But there's no value suggesting it just because you feel cynical.