On 5/22/06, Peter Mackay peter.mackay@bigpond.com wrote:
In the case you outline, I would suggest fair use. Releasing a photograph to which you do not hold the copyright into the public domain is morally indefensible, even if it is a very small sin and you will get away with it.
This whole conversation is getting a bit silly. But I don't agree with your statement that releasing a copyrighted image into PD (insofar as that's actually possible) is necessarily morally wrong. Would my mother care if I published her photo of flowers all over the web with PD marked on it? It is not necessarily the case that any copyright holder actually values that copyright. Therefore it is not necessarily the case that violating it is actually wrong.
Obviously this only applies to trivial cases, like the one we're discussing.
Steve