Thank you, Andrew. That seems very clear (not to mention evil). I've just got one remaining question. At the time the picture in question became featured it was argued that while the original photo (with the ruler and all) was copyrighted a derived work using only the manuscript part of the image would not be (presumably because of Bridgeman v. Corel).
So my question is: Would this cropping help at all under British law?
Regards, Haukur