Thanks heaps for this informative post.

I have a question:

YOU WROTE: “Bloggers often make commentaries on images, saying ‘this is what I think about this trend…’”

Would this be considered commenting on the subject (person wearing trendy clothes) within the copyrighted work (image/photography) but not necessarily commenting on the work itself (for example, ‘great shot, but not enough lighting…’)? In which case do we still have a fair use defence?

Thanks in advance,

TrenDee

This is not really a mixed message, it’s two messages coming from different sources. Designers telling you to lift photos from Style.com might not know a thing about copyright law, and they likely have no influence over what Conde Nast’s policies or decisions regarding litigatin. The Style.com disclaimer is the message from Conde Nast regarding how they feel about people using their content. That said, bloggers may well be protected by fair use. But as you said, judges decide on a case by case bases what constitutes infringement.