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I'm pretty sure there's fair-use exceptions for copyright law when there is no suitable alternative to a copyrighted work, and the work is necessary for some (possibly limited) use. See: news agencies historically using amateur photographs/video, every album cover/movie poster used on Wikipedia.

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Yeah, that's a very valid point that I hadn't considered. I'm quite sure that a news organization like BBC News could make a convincing case for necessity of use in a lot of "breaking news" type situations.

I recall that fair use laws in some countries explicitly mention issue of using copyrighted content in news stories / for public information.

Unfortunately quick googling didn't find anything useful, and the wikipedia article is surprisingly worthless:

While many other countries recognize similar exceptions to copyright, only the United States and Israel fully recognize the concept of fair use.

Seriously?

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