Artist Sues The Associated Press
I’ve previously written about the fine line between copyright infringement and First Amendment protection here. A recent case illustrates the quandary even further.
Shepard Fairey, commonly referred to as a street artist, is the creator of a famous campaign poster featuring President Obama. The basis for the poster was a news photo taken by an Associated Press photographer. After several weeks of public claims of copyright infringement by the AP, Mr. Fairey, with the help of lawyers from the Stanford Fair Use Project, filed a lawsuit seeking a declaration that Mr. Fairey ‘s use of the AP image is a fair use; and, therefore, not an infringement of the AP photo.
To complicate matters, the original photographer claims that he owns the copyright, and not the AP, based on his contract at the time.
More on the case can be found in this New York Times article.
–Matt
