Obama-Gate

Graphic Designer of Iconic Obama Image Stole it From AP Photographer…….

Why am I not surprised?

The graphic artist responsible for printing the iconic image of B.Hussein Obama with a message of HOPE spread across the presidential candidate’s chest, has been found to have pinched the image from an AP photograph.
Frank Shepard Fairey lifted the picture from a photo taken by Manny Garcia in 2006. Fairey knew very well what he was doing, having no intention of acknowledging the original work of Garcia, nor enquiring of any copy right infringements that might exist by using work not originally his own.
It’s a case of ends justifies the means, something of which that has come to symbolize the entire B.Hussein Obama run for the presidency. The Tundra Tabloids believes that Fairey rushed his copy-right infringing image too soon to the streets, so the TT added a few letters that were obviously missing. KGS
B.Hussein Obama’s half-brother George in Kenya
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, 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 Manny 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.”

3 Responses

  1. For various reasons I’ve spent a great deal of time examining US copyright law and I think this might fall under the Fair Use clause. Fair Use as a legal concept dates back to the 1750s and forms part of the corpus of common law. In the USC it’s defined as pretty much making use of a copyright work in such a way that doesn’t directly or indirectly impinge on the market or value of that work and as long as it is substantially altered.

    I think, in this case, the AP doesn’t have a leg to stand on. But that’s good, IMO. If they try and squash fair use, then parody disappears with it and all the photographs blogs post (like Moonbattery’s “pea-brain awards”) would be considered infringing.

    I always get wary when leftists start fighting each other. Whichever side wins, we lose.

  2. I didn’t know that Kristella, thanks for that one! They are all pompous asses, Clooney included.

    Graham, I can’t say one way or another how far this will go, and whether the AP has a case, but one factor is clear, this is not a case of lone blogger using a photo to accompany a post, and who may or may not have managed to scrape of few bucks from adds on his site.

    This is a case of a successful artist who has made tons of money from the work of a photographer, without any thought of that person’s contribution what-so-ever.

    That free lancer was robbed, and Fairey knew that when he took to using his photo for financial and commercial purposes.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.