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It's On

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

The AP is coming after artist Shepard Fairey over his iconic Obama image:

"'The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission,' the AP's director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement. 'AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution.'"

Fairey is being represented by the Fair Use Project at Stanford University. Its executive director, Anthony Falzone, says "we believe fair use protects Shepard's right to do what he did here."

The (AP!) article also quotes Columbia lawprof Jane Ginsburg as "questioning" the fair use claim: "What makes me uneasy is that it kind of suggests that anybody's photograph is fair game, even if it uses the entire image, and it remains recognizable, and it's not just used in a collage. I think that's pretty radical."

Previous post on this issue here.

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on February 05, 2009 (boomark / email).