> However they've been argued and asserted, and there is basis for a fair-use defence of virtually any meme use, so long as it's not injurious to the original.

> However they've been argued and asserted, and there is basis for a fair-use defence of virtually any meme use, so long as it's not injurious to the original. Yeah, fair use definitely has been used successfully. And in many meme cases I'd agree the meme is not necessarily injuring the original. (Though note, lack of injury is in no way sufficient to justify copyright infringement.) But I would speculate(!) that meme images being irrelevant to a photo undermines the fair use defense, that using a copyrighted photo to comment on something other than the subject in the photo means that use of the photo is not "commentary" relevant to the photo that supports fair use.