Big Ol’ Can of Worms
l3wis 
The Associated Press has HOPE – They’ll be able to cash in on the Obama craze while destroying a long standing artistic tradition.
This lawsuit could affect underground art in a very bad way!
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.”
Do I think the AP deserves compensation. Sure I do. But not a cut of the money, besides that would be almost impossible to determine. I think in all fairness a fee like using stock photography should be paid by Fairey. It is pretty clear that Fairey’s piece is a new original created from Garcia’s photo and if this lawsuit moves forward and succeeds it will put a whole new twist on what is ‘Fair Use’ anymore.
“We believe fair use protects Shepard’s right to do what he did here,” says Fairey’s attorney, 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.”Â
Fair use is a doctrine in United States copyright law that allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, such as use for scholarship or review. It provides for the legal, non-licensed citation or incorporation of copyrighted material in another author’s work under a four-factor balancing test. The term “fair use” originated in the United States, but has been added to Israeli law as well; a similar principle, fair dealing, exists in some other common law jurisdictions. Civil law jurisdictions have other limitations and exceptions to copyright.
In other words if something new and original is created from something else that was an original, it is fair game and perfectly legal. Think Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.
I HOPEÂ this gets resolved – like I said – it could be a disaster in the making for the art and satire world.
