i suspect that the choice of imagery had to do with the figures from the waste up in green, a theme that was played out by all the level's articipants. i think that the link in 1653's text was a way of saying 'i took this image from such and such a website.' the link is one solution to the issue of giving credit. other options are not to give credit at all, or to work the credit into the image itself, and to let people google it if they're interested.

credit is a tricky issue. the cosm is largely collage, and 'stealing' is a big part of the game. but, the more obscure your source is (even if it's commercial) the more it will look like your own work. some people might be comfortable with that, some might not. we probably all know that jer didn't create shaggy. i wouldn't have had any idea that those characters came from a sneaker ad, and were (presumably) the creation of some other artist. just as i'd bet not too many people would recognize the source of the figure in b3. i thought about linking my bit of text too, but in the end settled on simply including a caption in the image.