AP photo-left / Fairey's image-rightYes We Can. Yes we can violate copyright law through the creation of campaign posters. The situation looked bleak for world renowned street artist Shepard Fairey this week when his copyright infringement lawsuit took a turn for the worse.
Mr. Fairey gained worldwide popularity after he created an iconic image of then presidential candidate Barack Obama. The artist took a photo of Mr. Obama which showed him with his head tilted skyward, enhanced it with some red, white, and blue highlights and posted the word HOPE underneath in bold letters. The now famous image has been used on thousands of campaign posters, tshirts, bumper stickers, and even stationary. The artist made a significasnt profit from the sales his image generated.
But followers of I Know My Copyrights must know that this tale of the American dream doesn't end happily. Seems Mr. Fairey used a copyrighted photograph to generate the image of President Obama that led to his new found riches. Unfortunately for him he used copyrighted material belonging to an organization who takes copyrights very seriously and has the resources to pursue would be infringers with great zeal, the Associatead Press.
Seems the AP found the hope poster image to be strinkingly similar to an AP photograph that showed candidate Obama seated next to George Clooney. The AP asked Mr. Fairey for credit and compensation for the use of their photo and he answered them with a lawsuit claiming that fair use exemptions gave him the right to use the photo. The AP countersued for copyright infringement.
Mr Fairey further compounded the matter by initially lying to his attorneys and everyone else about the true source photograph for the image. He initially claimed that he had in fact used a different photograph to create his poster and even produced evidence which he gave to his attorneys. This week Mr. Fairey admitted to falsely creating this evidence after the lawsuit had begun and deleting files from his computer which would have led investigators to the true source photograph, the one owned by the AP. Now Mr. Fairey's attorneys plan to ask the court permission to step down as his counsel because of his deception.
Let this be a two-headed lesson to us all, 1.Do not use copyrighted material to make a profit for yourself and 2. if you do, do not lie to your attorney about it.
Here are some links to the story:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/ap-says-shepard-fairey-lied-about-hope-poster/
http://www.examiner.com/x-8310-Trendy-Living-Examiner~y2009m10d17-Shepard-Fairey-lied-about-Obama-Hope-poster-image-Photo-Gallery--Video
http://www.theage.com.au/world/i-lied-poster-artist-admits-20091018-h2vw.html
Does no one realize that they are going to be caught? I can understand how you might snag a picture of the internet, tweak it a bit and through it up on your Facebook page and figure no one will care. But once the public starts to gain interest in it, its time to ask for permission and hand over a little profit.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that people are too greedy. Does the Associated Press really need more money? Granted if you let one get away with it then everyone tries it. Plus how can someone expect to get the right representation if you lie to your attorney. Too bad, sounds like being stupid is going to cause this guy a lot of problems.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good thing Andy Warhol didn't use copyrighted photos or obtained the photographer's permission before cranking out his pop art. Maybe he didn't and there's a photographer somewhere out there that could really make some big bucks!
ReplyDeleteI agree with John some here as well. The new attorney for the artist wants to make this case about the "fair use" principal which he claims makes the picture part of the public domain. But lying to the first set of lawyers hurt him pretty bad.
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