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In one of the more cynical, brain-dead moves in recent times (right up there with Kellogg's dumping of Michael Phelps), the Associated Press has decided to sue the street artist Shepard Fairie for using an AP photo of Obama as a starting point for his famous poster. Have all the public relations professionals left the country? How could the Associated Press have ever thought this would be a good idea?
First, if you look at the photo side by side with the poster, it's immediately apparent that this is not a case of copying an image, so much as interpreting it. The tilt of Obama's head is different, his shoulders align differently. Copyright law is notoriously obscure, but it's hard to see how this could be a clear violation of the photographer's rights.
Speaking of the photographer, Mannie Garcia believes that he, not AP, holds the rights to the photo, according to the contract he worked under when he took the shot. Given the fact that Fairie made no money from the posters, never tried to copyright his own design, and Garcia is "so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it’s had,” AP appears to be joining Kellogg's in exposing themselves as companies that are sadly out of touch with the times.
Obama should make his first executive pardon of Fairie. Pure symbolism, I know, but sometimes hope is symbolic.
