Oh, I'd readily admit mentioning a cartoon character is fair use, but it seems like using the actual image of a cartoon character is infringement—what else IS a cartoon character? Where's the line? If one person can put Tinkerbell in a science book, why can't I publish a "Disney characters coloring book" without a license?
I'm admittedly not an expert, but there have been many rulings stating that characters themselves can be covered by copyright,[0] and fair use is supposed to allow for commentary and criticism, not just "oh, that's nice, I'll use that." It's not very different from just putting people's photographs in a science book, is it?
> Oh, I'd readily admit mentioning a cartoon character is fair use
It's probably not even an otherwise-infringing activity that would require fair-use analysis. At least if we are talking about copyright; if the character name is also a trademark, that may be a different story.
