Is this true?

Yes, it is.

I'm a previous career, I was a professional photographer. I spent a lot of time chasing after companies that operated with the "if it's in the internet, it must be free" mindset. The right letters, sent the right way, to the right people almost always gets things fixed.

In one example, a very major bank used one of my photos as the cover of a corporate report. That mistake paid my rent for a little over a year.