Freedom?

I do not know, nor do I care about the details of this case. Not at all. But there is an interesting series of pastiche in the current issue using images substantially altered from their originals- actually commissioned by the BJ, that could just as easily have used images made by others in precisely the same way, and then there is of course the work of John Heartfield , who like Fairey used photographs extensively in his work to counter the rise of Fascism.

This results shows us that the fascists are winning yet again, as some ass of a judge fails to recognize the distinction that exists in fact between an original and its very much altered reproduction.

Bartok quoted Shostakovich directly in his Concerto for Orchestra and Beethoven used a theme by Mozart for the finale of his Ninth Symphony.

Everyone does this and they always have, but recently even someone successfully sued over the concept of a photograph of a bus crossing the Thames on a bridge and the estate of another photographer sued Pepsi for daring to show an image of somebody licking their lips... as if we have not ALL of us photographed these things ourselves?

Well, I'm sorry to hear that in the US greed for money overrides artistic and creative freedoms, just as it is destroying entires cultures in Iraq, Afghanistan etc etc.,

Mad. mad world....

Money Money Money

I cannot pretend to have been a fly on the wall during the doubtless lengthy discussions between Fairey and his legal team and AP and their legal team. However, of one thing I am absolutely certain: the lawyers on both sides would have urged the parties to 'fight, fight, fight! As we see in so many cases, the award of damages is dwarfed by the legal bills. One case I took notice of saw the damages set at £6,000 but the legal costs for both sides were well in excess of £100,000! So, as the title suggests, it's all about MONEY!

HOPELESS

#assholitude

Fair dues...

I think Peter Harrap's 'everybody does it' and it was 'altered' are not sufficient excuses for using someone else's copyrighted or legally owned work without either their express approval or payment. The photographer who took the image paid a lot of money for his camera, lens & other equipment to create the image as well accreditation to get access & the time to go to where Obama was to shoot the image & processing. The image was bought by an agency so they spent money on it as well. Although this doesn't affect Fairey if profit were made from the use of the image of course compensation should be paid to the original creator.

Fairey's problem here though was that he lied to a court of law. He should have just owned up, however the deceit he showed unfortunately reflects of a lot of unprofessionally trained designers who think they can help themselves to everybody else's work without constraints. Sometimes a photographer will allow use of their images for free if consulted first. Humility and acceptance that he didn't own the image himself could have saved him a lot of hassle, time & money in addition to the 300 hrs community work he now has to do.

Conviction details

According to this report, Fairey was convicted of "criminal contempt for destroying documents and fabricating others in a case *he* brought against AP". Peter Harrap therefore gets unnecessarily confused about the issue of copyright. Fairey was not convicted of copyright infringement.

(NB If this report doesn't include all the relevant convictions, I may have to revise my judgement.)

Coverage

Yep according to the stories I've read Fairey filed the case against the AP.... If you ask me he was just looking for a way to attract some attention and get some coverage and it worked! Good on him... if he has to do some community service in return for a bit of fame that's the price he's willing to pay. He'll only go and paste a poster or two back up once he's done, or make loads of money from his brand that's also got coverage from this story. I wish I could get some coverage for my work or promote my brand then help my community at the same time!

ps my work is at www.cargocollective.com/karlchild

I'm off to cut the neighbours lawn.......