The Great Associated Press vs Shepard Fairey Obama Hope Poster Debate
If you haven’t yet heard the news, the AP has claimed copyright infringement against Los Angeles-based Wrestlemania fan and graphic artist Shepard Fairey for his iconic “HOPE” poster depicting Barack Obama. Turns out Fairey used an AP photo originally taken by Manny Garcia as the basis of his 2008 poster without credit or prior permission (the artist had made this admission prior to recent litigation). The Associated Press now wants to see cash and credit; Shep is claiming Fair Use. While awaiting feedback and insight from various legal professionals regarding this debate, we now turn to you, dear reader, to weigh in on this pressing legal quandary…
IMAGE CREDIT: AP photo by Manny Garcia. Poster by Shepard Fairey based on AP photo by Manny Garcia. Photo reprinted from Yahoo! News, which was taken from the Associated Press. Photo reprinted sans formal permission from Yahoo! News or the Assosicated Press, but with full standard blog attribution. (Does such a thing exist? Where does it end!? Cease-and-desist me if you must.)
Update: As Gawker has pointed out, the 2008 Obama campaign had Fairey design an entirely separate poster, knowing full well the original image was AP copyrighted. Next, go check out the WashPost’s graphic breakdown of the above controversial poster back in May of last year – published months after the new legally-safe poster had been added to the Obama campaign store – and note how the WP writer deftly describes how Shepard “straightens the jacket lapels” while neglecting to publish the original photo, thereby denying you any sort of context.
And what about PROOF that he wasn’t born here? http://jumpinginpools.blogspot.com/2009/02/proof-surfaces-of-obama-being-born-off.html
It totally looks like AP are being greedy dickheads but this is probably more about making sure every tagger and would be graphic designer on earth doesnt now think its ok to use AP’s images whenever and however they want.
maybe obama should sue him too cause I think obama owns his own face right?
I don’t think I’m making an overstatement when I say AP = homo jocks.
Shep’s poster is not based on a photo, but based on a public moment in spacetime that anyone could have observed, recalled and rendered with or without a photo. Shep could just as well have been position over ol’ Mannie’s shoulder in that very room at that exact nanosecond and observed from the same vantage point, with his own two eyes, Obama paused in that precise pose and then later re-drew it from memory. Unless AP owns memories or precise moments of spacetime, the claim holds no water.
He totally changed the color of the tie – to say nothing of the fact that the photog himself is now claiming the AP doesn’t own the image and that he never signed any paperwork for them. We should be fine here. More importantly, if these people would all employ a Losanjealous-style watermark to the corner of their images, this stuff would be a lot easier to track (because nobody ever, ever edits those or crops them out and fails to attribute)
[...] for using their image without credit or prior permission. Tell Losanjealous how you feel about that in their poll on the matter. (We’re firmly Team I totally blame Coldplay!) · Chewbacca is a gigantic Veronica Mars [...]
Shep could just as well have been position over ol’ Mannie’s shoulder in that very room at that exact nanosecond and observed from the same vantage point, with his own two eyes, Obama paused in that precise pose and then later re-drew it from memory.
This could all be well and true, except that Shep himself said he found the pic on Google image search (designers lol)
Maybe Hillary was talking about art when she made that quip about “http://minesf.com/change_you_can_xerox.html” >change you can Xerox…
[...] SPEAKING OF SHEP » The Great Associated Press vs Shepard Fairey Obama Hope Poster Debate [...]
[...] Hope show during the inauguration of Barrack Obama (as well as the famed and newly controversial Shepard Fairey HOPE/PROGRESS Obama image), showcases a collection from a large pool of artists including standouts Shepard [...]