Shepard Fairey Sues Associated Press

WOAH- People sure act kooky when some one is on the rise, especially hipster star & street artist Shepard Fairey. Home boy is blowin' up outta control. This sure is entertaining. He is right on the money with this one and deserves all the credit and fame. Fuckin haters trying to claim.

Shepard Fairey, the artist whose “Hope” image of President Barack Obama was added to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, sued the Associated Press over the news company’s copyright challenge to the artwork.

Fairey seeks to “vindicate” himself after the AP earlier accused him of copying the AP photograph on which the artist’s red-white-and-blue image of Obama is based, according to a complaint filed today in federal court in New York.

The Los Angeles-based artist and his company, Obey Giant Art Inc., used the AP photograph “as a visual reference for a highly transformative purpose,” according to the complaint. “Fairey altered the original with new meaning, new expression and new messages.”

The photograph that inspired the disputed Fairey image was taken by Mannie Garcia in April 2006 at the National Press Club’s panel discussion about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to the complaint.

Fairey seeks a court order that the image, created in January 2008, doesn’t violate AP’s copyright. According to the complaint, Fairey’s work is protected by the Fair Use statute, which allows limited use of copyrighted material to make original works of art.

Permission Required

“The photograph used in the poster is an AP photo, and its use required permission from AP,” Paul Colford, an AP spokesman’ said today in an e-mailed statement.

“AP believes it is crucial to protect photographers, who are creators and artists,” Colford said. “Their work should not be misappropriated by others.”

The lawsuit took AP by surprise, Colford said, because the company was “in the middle of settlement discussions” with Fairey’s attorney last week and had agreed not to sue during the negotiations.

The AP, which claimed on Feb. 4 that Fairey’s image infringed its copyright, threatened to sue Fairey by tomorrow, according to the complaint. The AP said it used “special technology” to determine the image’s original source.

Fairey’s work, often found in the form of street art, focuses on social and political subjects with media including screen prints and stencil paintings, according to his complaint. Earlier this month, the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston opened a 20-year retrospective of Fairey’s work.

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled a poster of “Obama Hope” on Jan. 17.

The case is Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

WOAH- People sure act kooky when some one is on the rise, especially hipster star & street artist Shepard Fairey. Home boy is blowin' up outta control. This sure is entertaining. He is right on the money with this one and deserves all the credit and fame. Fuckin haters trying to claim.

Shepard Fairey, the artist whose “Hope” image of President Barack Obama was added to the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, sued the Associated Press over the news company’s copyright challenge to the artwork.

Fairey seeks to “vindicate” himself after the AP earlier accused him of copying the AP photograph on which the artist’s red-white-and-blue image of Obama is based, according to a complaint filed today in federal court in New York.

The Los Angeles-based artist and his company, Obey Giant Art Inc., used the AP photograph “as a visual reference for a highly transformative purpose,” according to the complaint. “Fairey altered the original with new meaning, new expression and new messages.”

The photograph that inspired the disputed Fairey image was taken by Mannie Garcia in April 2006 at the National Press Club’s panel discussion about the humanitarian crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region, according to the complaint.

Fairey seeks a court order that the image, created in January 2008, doesn’t violate AP’s copyright. According to the complaint, Fairey’s work is protected by the Fair Use statute, which allows limited use of copyrighted material to make original works of art.

Permission Required

“The photograph used in the poster is an AP photo, and its use required permission from AP,” Paul Colford, an AP spokesman’ said today in an e-mailed statement.

“AP believes it is crucial to protect photographers, who are creators and artists,” Colford said. “Their work should not be misappropriated by others.”

The lawsuit took AP by surprise, Colford said, because the company was “in the middle of settlement discussions” with Fairey’s attorney last week and had agreed not to sue during the negotiations.

The AP, which claimed on Feb. 4 that Fairey’s image infringed its copyright, threatened to sue Fairey by tomorrow, according to the complaint. The AP said it used “special technology” to determine the image’s original source.

Fairey’s work, often found in the form of street art, focuses on social and political subjects with media including screen prints and stencil paintings, according to his complaint. Earlier this month, the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston opened a 20-year retrospective of Fairey’s work.

The Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery unveiled a poster of “Obama Hope” on Jan. 17.

The case is Fairey v. The Associated Press, 09-cv-01123, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).