AP alleges copyright infringement of Obama image
Quote clipped from the above:"NEW YORK (AP) — On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: a pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.
Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, and has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.
The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Mannie Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.
The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.
"The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission," the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement. "AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution."
"We believe fair use protects Shepard's right to do what he did here," says Fairey's lawyer, Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University and a lecturer at the Stanford Law School. "It wouldn't be appropriate to comment beyond that at this time because we are in discussions about this with the AP."
NEXT: Clipped from http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/node/6061
FUP Files Suit Against The Associated Press On Behalf Of "Obama Hope" Artist Shepard Fairey
by Anthony Falzone, posted on February 10, 2009 - 3:43pm"Yesterday, we filed suit against the AP on Fairey's behalf to vindicate his rights, and disprove the AP's accusations."
"On or around January 29, 2009, an attorney for the AP phoned Shepard Fairey’s production studio. A representative for Fairey returned the call on January 30, 2009. During that call, the AP’s attorney explained the AP had special technology to detect the source of the photo used to create Obama Hope. The AP’s attorney stated the AP owned the rights to the photograph Fairey used to create Obama Hope, demanded payment for Fairey’s use of the AP photo, and stated the AP expected to be paid a portion of any money Fairey might make from his work."Many posts here clip images and text from sources, most are well attributed, and though I cannot say I make a political or editorial statement on the scale of Shepard Fairey, I support him as an artist and I can only believe that we both have no intent to infringe on the IP rights of any party. There are times were I make no comment in a post and let the clippings stand on their own, and only by reading all my posts will you gain any understanding of the collage of posts and the commentary I make with the collection on "The State of the Art, Technology and Business". I strongly believe in the Fair Use Doctrine and some just plain common sence.
I only wonder if AP would have sued Andy Warhol?
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