Copyright Violation - Good Girl Gina

Earlier today I received an email from Tumblr that the photographer that took the photo that we know as the Internet meme Good Girl Gina –Yuri Arcurs– has requested that they remove it from my blog, and quite possibly everywhere on Tumblr. I appealed this claiming that the photo was used under fair use, and is a transformative work that does not detract from its orriginal purpose. So far I’ve heard nothing. How many memes these days are based on stock photos? I could write a laundry list of them if I felt like it.

The problem here isn’t Good Girl Gina particularly; it’s that if one meme can be removed from the Internet, then what is stopping the team for Game of Thrones from saying that Imminent Ned violates their interests, and decides to take it down for example. The removal of this was a gross violation of the DMCA. We have the right to parody; don’t let that be taken away. What do you think about this issue?