I had never heard of Michael Yon nor this lawsuit until now.

I did some more research on it and it appears that Moore had been ignoring requests from Yon’s attorney to remove the photo.

But when I clicked on Moore’s website, I did not see the photo anywhere, so it looks like he removed it.

However, a Jan. 16, 2009 NY Post article states that the lawsuit is proceeding.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/01172009/postopinion/editorials/michael_moores_comeuppance_150532.htm

The problem I see with this whole case is that both sides are trying to politicize this when it’s really just a case of copyright violation, nothing else.

Moore is being accused of posting the photo to imply that American troops are killing children.

But the other side is saying the photo actually implies that American troops are saving children.

But the photo speaks for itself and nothing else. It is an excellent photo which captures a millisecond of a war that has lasted six years so far.

People are always going to come away with their own deductions of a photo regardless of what one side says or the other side says.

But the photo was not manipulated, so it will be hard to prove that Moore deliberately tried to misinterpret the photo.

It was basically used without Yon’s permission, which is a copyright violation.

As bloggers, we do that all the time under the “fair use” section of the Copyright Law which allows the use of a photo for news and research purposes.

When I use other people’s photos, I do it to accompany a particular article and I always credit the photographer.

However, Moore apparently used this image in his header, so it doesn’t appear that he was using it in a journalistic manner but in a manner to promote his blog (or his agenda).

Now I haven’t seen how he used it, I’m just going by what I read.

The other issue is unlike most bloggers, Moore is a multimillionaire, so it’s not like he can’t afford to pay the proper licensing fee to use the photo.

But I’m wondering exactly how long Moore had the photo on his site. Was it one week? Two weeks? Five months?

And I’m wondering if he did, in fact, ignore requests to remove the photo because all I’m reading are a bunch of right-wing pundits, including Rupert Murdoch’s NY Post.

The other question that should be asked is if Moore actually made money off the photo, which I doubt.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Anyway, I checked out Yon’s site and his story is pretty impressive. He’s basically an independent blogger covering the war.

I also looked though his photos and they were decent. I didn’t see any that stood out as the one in question. Most were just snapshots.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/05/sicko-michael-moore-swipes-michael-yons.html

Thanks,
Chaz