[dennisw]

Technically you are correct and make a good courtroom argument. Her case would be much stronger if the Corbis images were on a Free Republic server. None the less, the "colloquial understanding" of an internet page is that what you see there is due to the server that hosts the web page. It matters not to Joe how/why the image appears on his computer screen. Nor what server the image originates from. Were it not for the coding of the actual website, the reader would be unaware of the photo

(c.) Immediately cease and desist from any current or pending uses of Corbis images, including but not limited to displaying these images on your website and other printed materials.

This demand is consistent with the average person's understanding of what a web page is. And for sure this rude compliance manager has shown she has little understanding of how an image can be hosted on another server

[not_apathetic_anymore]

Well we've recently seen the hard-nosed approach of MS when approaching Mike Roe Soft (the Canadian kid who bought that domain or some such). Instead of making a pleasant request they came with threats and then had to do some backtracking when they got a ton of negative PR. I reconize MS isn' Corbis...but given teh same owner perhaps the operating philosophy is the same.

As an aside MS seems to operate under the "it's better to ask forgiveness the ask permission" philosophy when making their software. Somehow it's not OK for others to operate under the same philosophy?

[NonValueAdded]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, a real Pandora's box. I doubt Jim Robinson wants to be a test case but I think there is a good chance to break new legal ground on this. It will be interesting to track this subject.

[NonValueAdded]

According to the Stanford Copyright & Fair Use pages (dare I post a link? Yes, I do: here) we are "inlining" images which is ok for thumbnails according to the 9th circus but that full size image "inlining" is not settled. Shaky enough ground to avoid.

There was other discussion in this thread about watermarks present or not present. I don't know about that but isn't there copyright information contained within the jpeg specification itself? Isn't that how Corbis came up with those identification numbers? If so, it may be possible to automatically screen for Corbis' material. Anything sized larger than a thumbnail could be rejected and a click on a thumbnail would cause the new window, "now leaving FR" treatment. Just a thought.