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"Was anyone using the original photo for criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research?"

1. Criticism... YES
2. Comment..... YES
3. news reporting.....YES

The pictures were posted on Kerry news threads, people were discussing his record of protesting the Vietnam war. It is a documentation of that fact, as it clearly has him aligned with Jane Fonda. The photo is the only real documentation of that fact.

Without that photo, would the public at large really believe (without doubt) that Kerry was at an anti-war rally with Hanoi Jane Fonda???

Kerry would have denied it, much as Billy Boy Clinton denied having sex with "that woman, Miss Lewinski". But no, disemination of that photo educated the otherwise ignorant public. This photo is the blue stained dress of evidence.

If criticism and discussion, on a news forum, of that otherwise unknown event about a Presidential candidate does not fall under the guidelines of *'fair use'*, than I don't know what would.

*'fair use' - US Copyright Law. Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.*

You're missing an important point. To have fair use of a copyrighted work, you must be criticizing, commenting, or reporting on the copyrighted work, not some other subject. And even then, the use of that work is limited.

According to your logic, I could be on TV criticizing Kerry and playing Eminem's latest album in the background without any copyright issues. Just because I am criticizing something, does not bring all copyrighted works in the public domain.

Actually the photo they complained about was the fake one, but that is certainly part of the "criticism" and "comment".

There was the REAL photo, which appeared at Newsmax, where Kerry is sitting behind Fonda at an anti-war rally, which is the real one. As far as I know THAT picture is NOT the property of Corbis.

Corbiss one mean SOB of a company to deal with.

We need to back off of this not to harm Jim and Free Republic.

To demostrate the power of copyrights re photos, take a family picture from a professional photog into a Freddie self service photo center. Then ask a clerk to help you make a copy. Inspite you paying for that photo of your family, you can't legally copy it.

Then take that same photo into another professional photo shop and ask them to make you some copies.

We need to back off of this before Jim and Free Republic get caught in an expensive lawsuit.