Anthony DiPierro wrote:
IOW, no, the desires of the copyright holder have no bearing on whether an image can be fairly used, because the fair use defense presumes that the copyright holder objects to the use.
I'm not a lawyer, but this seems like pretty simple logic to me...
I thought so too, and another editor who _is_ a lawyer (User:Bobak) looked at the situation in a fair bit of detail and agreed with my logic. But UninvitedCompany claimed at the end of the deletion review entry http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Deletion_review&oldid=50533958#Image:O_RLY.jpg that the Wikimedia Foundation lawyer had had a look at the situation and said it should be deleted. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find either a link to the Foundation lawyer's comments or the original copyright holder's complaint anywhere, so it still leaves me completely in the dark as to why this logic is apparently wrong in this case.