Photos on IMDB only for as long as you pay?

I believe (but am not sure) that IMdb has continuing rights to the pictures supplied by their photo partners, so the fate of those companies does not matter in that way.

It is only photos that are uploaded via the Resume subscription that are subject to removal. This does not apply to the photos on  Whitney Houston's page.

Photos uploaded via Resume are normally maintained in a separate Official Photos gallery.  Lisa Santonato's page shows such a gallery link (right beside the View Profile link).

Thanks. And what about all those official photos (headshots) of deceased celebrities? Most of these partner sites only have red carpet snapshots. 

Ps. I have a feeling this is a money issue for IMDB, to gain paid users. I would gladly pay for membership, to be able to add pictures, knowing that my pictures will stay in the database. Apparently that is not the case, so basically it will be "temporarily renting", which is not the point of a database, so I won't do that.

A "database" is an easily accessed collection of information. By definition, regardless of photos being present or not, it's exactly that.

Their own description mentions nothing about photos on What is IMDb?

Personally, after 15 years, cannot remember a time I've ever accessed the database to see photos.

As to "Temporary Rent Space..." of course...that's how subscriptions work. If you put your photo on a billboard, then stop paying the owner, do you think the photo stays there permanently? Of course not. If you subscribe to a magazine and cancel, do they continue delivery permanently? Of course not.

Putting a head shot up via Pro requires an active subscription.

I thought IMDB was really a sort of movie database for the future

It's actually about the past. They document what's in the on screen credits of film and tv. Everything listed is now in the past (though some titles in production get listed early..but they are not eligible for listing if never released).

Ps. I have a feeling this is a money issue for IMDB

Of course...no offense but, duh! Money streams they can add to keep a free site for its 200,000,000 unique monthly visitors are essential to keep the lights on and the computers cranking are essential.

I would gladly pay for membership, to be able to add pictures

You can add posters or stills to title or name pages for a one time fee and it's permanent, but you need to be legally affiliated with person or title. You have to own the photo and all rights to its use.

See: http://www.imdb.com/help/search?domain=helpdesk_faq&index=1&file=ownposter&ref_=hlp_sr_3

To Henry, that might be...but it's not usually the case. The items added via Pro get suppressed for a year and if the account is not restarted, they are removed. Those tagged with your name, sent via Getty should not have been affected by the presence or lack thereof of a Pro account, as far as I've ever seen.

"As to "Temporary Rent Space..." of course...that's how subscriptions work. If you put your photo on a billboard........"

I understand that, but this is not "LinkedIn",  for promotion and business of your own image. Like you said, this is a site for documents in the past, so that people in the future can see information about actors and films that once were, with all the information that belongs to a film or actor, including what they looked like. I really think this needs to be addressed.

I also noticed a lot of famous actors that have been deceased for many years still have headshots on their profile (not partner site red carpet snapshots). Who pays for that? Fans? So those pics will disappear in a few years too?

If IMDB wants to be another "LinkedIn" they can remove all deceased actors right away, but if "IMDB" wants to be a database of the past, then this "temporary rent process" does not match that. So what is it?

It's been answered. It's primarily a database of film/tv facts. While not primarily a picture site, it features some based on submission from those who own rights. Also, they offer resume services to those in the business which includes legal use of their submitted head shot and stills.

As far as I know, linked in is not a film/tv database....so no, IMDb's mission to display film/tv facts in a searchable way has nothing to do with linked in.