Good As You

I guess one of the "traditional values" is THEFT. They may have well just put a caption under the graphic that says "we're unwilling to pay for this image"

Just like all the rights that were "invented" for blacks in the past 60 years, right?

Well Jason, I'd be careful using "theft" claims in this instance. The image they are running is only slightly larger than how I've linked it here, and it can't be reproduced. Their usage of the image in this way would surely fall under the "good enough for Google" rule (following the acceptability model of Google linking thumbnail photos for their image searches).

So let's just focus on the ridiculousness on this one :-)

Slightly off topic: The ADF is apparently suing NY Gov. Paterson for his pro-marriage actions and are citing the definition of marriage used by the Merriam-Webster dictionary online (per the New York Sun). This is ridiculous to begin with, but when I looked up marriage in MW it was:

(1): the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law (2): the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage

So unless I am mistaken, not only are they citing a source which has no legal value in a lawsuit, that source does not even support them.

Anyway, my point is, they have no shame.

Jeremy,
I'm not so sure, do you mean to tell me that taking a copyrighted image you normally have to pay to use, and then creating a new image using the first image is legal? How is that NOT theft? What's the point of actually purchasing stock photos if you're allowed to use them without permission to create new graphics?

Jason: Well it's not that simple. Because it's only a thumbnail, the likes of which cannot be reproduced full size without completely depreciating the quality, it creates a diff. issue. What they have used is not really the image that you would purchase from the stock photo site -- it's only the thumbnail version of it, which one can easily find in a Google image search. That's where the whole "good enough for Google" precedent comes into play: If Google can use the images on their search page without penalty, then other sites can use the same sort of non-reproducible thumbnail in the same way. It's the ceoncept that has allowed for gagillions of bloggers to pretty up their sites for years and years.

Does that make sense?

That being said, it's certainly ridiculous that they used this photo, since there is absolutely no reason. An outline of California can easily be found in a number of places wherein their lifting/usage would be a non-debate.

**It should be noted that TVC has now removed the water mark.

Man, I LOVE reading the panic on all of these so-called pro-family sites. All of a sudden, passage of these amendments isn't such a done deal! Sure, Arizona will probably pass. But 60% is a tough nut to crack in Florida. California? The battle is already over. Even if the amendment passes, it'll probably be tossed out under the same judicial scrutiny as Prop 22.

Either way, they are on the run, these (so-called) Christian groups. History is stumbling forward, however achingly slow.