[jakelazaroff]

It’s not begging the question. The pixel art image is unambiguously at least a derivative work of the photograph. The issue is whether it was transformative enough to count as “fair use”. I personally think the lawsuit was kinda dickish, but it was definitely Maisel’s right to do so.

[fenomas]

They didn't put a copy of Maisel's photo on their CD - they asked a pixel artist to draw it, and put that on their CD. Whether doing that qualifies as a commercial use of Maisel's photo is precisely the point under contention, so "they used [his image] commercially" is what I meant begs the question.