Obama Portraitist Launches Copyright Case

Artist Shepard Fairey composed a stylized, red-white-and-blue portrait of Barack Obama based on a photograph taken by Mannie Garcia for the Associated Press. The portrait became famous during the 2008 presidential campaign. The AP contacted Fairey, saying Fairey had violated AP’s copyright on the pic, and suggested a deal be cut for AP’s compensation. Fairey said no, claiming the “fair use” exception to copyright infringement, and sued AP in federal court asking for a declaratory judgment that the portrait does not violate AP’s copyright. The photographer, Garcia, now says that the copyright on the photo is his, not AP’s, due to his contract with AP at the time. The New York Times has a good article on the case, here. 

Lest I be accused of copyright violation and have to raise the Fair Use defense, I’ll just admit the above compilation is an Associated Press image, and the first pic to ever appear on the USLegal Blog. Yay.

You can read all about the Fair Use defense in Wikipedia, and make up your mind. My vote is: fair use, no infringement. Will update when the case concludes.

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