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.

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?

"It's easier to ask forgiveness than permission"

Of course it's also possible they make the judgement call of being willing to eventually cough up an amount up to the statutory damages for copyright infringement in these "exceptional cases".

That's why photographers demand 10x the usual rate after publishment. It's still cheaper than the court costs. Business as usual.

I wonder how high the punishment for using a picture could be? Maybe the damages will be estimated according to market rate, which the BBC would have been prepared to pay anyway?

I'm pretty sure if you or me infringe on copyright, the damages aren't estimated according to the market rate... but I'm curious how this works for the BBC.

If a news organization which is publicly funded has to make a choice between breaking important news or obeying the law, I would rather that they report the news.

I would rather they report the news while staying on the correct side of copyright law.

If the author of the original post was a professional photo journalist who happened to post some of his photos to twitter would it be fine for the BBC to use that photo?

Similarly, if you wrote a script which was then used verbatim in a commercial product outside of the any license you had granted because they had to get the product out the door would that be fine?

I am talking about a dilemma, where they must choose either to report news or obey the law. I would also rather that they do both, when possible, but sometimes there are situations where they must pick, and I would rather that they pick the choice that serves the public rather than the government. (Remember, copyright is established by the government, to protect artists and scientists, to promote cultural progress; it is not an innate right!)