AP accuses 'Hope' artist of copyright infringement

There are times when huge corporations go after the little guy and simply get it dead wrong in my opinion. Like this:

As we've previously reported, the Hope posters that artist Shepard Fairey created during the presidential campaign use an image of Barack Obama that's based on a photograph taken for the Associated Press by then-freelancer Mannie Garcia.

Now, the AP wants credit and compensation.

The wire service says Fairey didn't get permission to do what he did. Fairey's attorney says "fair use" gave him the legal right to take the image and rework it into a piece of art.

"We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution," says the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, in a statement.

What do they hope to gain through this? Fairey, as far as I am aware, did not make huge fortunes out of this iconic image, so what does AP want? It's not as if the picture which they are claiming this poster is based on is especially brilliant or shows a side of Obama which we have previously never seen.

Indeed, it is what Fairey did with the image which makes it interesting, far more than the image itself.

And lawyers appear to at loggerheads over whether or not there has been copyright infringement in this case.

"Fairey's purpose of the use for the photo was political or civic, and this will certainly count in favor of the poster being a fair use," said Gross, based in San Francisco. "Nor will the poster diminish the value of the photo, if anything, it has increased the original photo's value beyond measure, another factor counting heavily in favor of fair use."

Is there a company out there wanting compensation for the iconic photograph of "Che" Guevara?

If they had any sense, AP would simply let this one go.

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Tags: Obama, icon, iconic, Associated Press, Shepard Fairey