Why not post the artwork that you removed in the copyright forum, along with the background info. I'd be very interested in seeing what their view on it would be.

Also, oddly enough, my whole point in disaggreeing with Kort isn't based on the legal grounds at all.  I have a problem with someone hacking the original artist's vision. Out of respect, I would not have altered the artwork by cropping it, and/or changing the colors.