Snapped Shot shut down

The best place on the web for analyzing and critiquing news photography has been sent a "cease and desist" letter from AP, and the blogger (and blog-friend) Brian Ledbetter has agreed to take his Snapped Shot site down until the issue can be resolved.

As the Jawa Report mentions:

Since all of the AP images reprinted by Brian are criticisms of them, they clearly fall into the realm of "fair use".

This is a chilling development, as many other bloggers (myself included) often link to and reproduce wire service photos for criticism and comment. The Lebanon war "fauxtography" scandals, where many photos were found to have been Photoshopped, staged or otherwise deceptive, would not have come to light had it not been for bloggers like Brian.

It is a sad day for free speech.