I'm creating a website that reviews bars and restaurants and I want to use existing pictures from the website of the bars and restaurants we're reviewing. The fair use doctrine "allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as for commentary, criticism, news reporting, research, teaching or scholarship" (from Wikipedia). My question is, does this type of website (something like Yelp or Citysearch) fall under the commentary or criticism uses described in this law?

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If you are commenting upon or critiquing a copyrighted work--for instance, writing a book review -- fair use principles allow you to reproduce some of the work to achieve your purposes. Some examples of commentary and criticism include: * quoting a few lines from a Bob Dylan song in a music review * summarizing and quoting from a medical article on prostate cancer in a news report * copying a few paragraphs from a news article for use by a teacher or student in a lesson, or * copying a portion of a Sports Illustrated magazine article for use in a related court case. The underlying rationale of this rule is that the public benefits from your review, which is enhanced by including some of the copyrighted material. Additional examples of commentary or criticism are provided in the examples of fair use cases. http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter9/9-a.html#1 However, keep in mind that commentary or criticism (i.e., the purpose of the work) is merely ONE factor that goes into a fair use determination. That is, commentary/criticism is not a blanket immunity. It is certainly possible that use of copyrighted material even in a commentary or criticism may be found to not be fair use.