Artist Shepard Fairey and his atrorney, Stanford Fair Use Project director, Anthony Falzone, are claiming fair use in the Southern District of New York over the Obama picture that became the staple image of his campaign. The photograph was taken by a member of the AP, and Fairey turned the photo into the creative mix of colors that every American has presumably seen and identified the Obama campaign with. The image was sold on posters, t-shirts, and more. There is no question that the artist-image was based on the photo, but the defendants will claim that the image is transformative. To be successful, Fairey must prove that his rendition was more than just an alteration of the image, and instead actually took on new qualities. For more on the matter, read this article in Managing Intellectual Property.

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BPIZZY
This is really interesting and relates directly to our http://shophaap.com t-shirt designs. What is considered a new “quality”?
On a side note, I remember reading that this guy just got arrested for something else too, but I can’t remember what.
Feb 16th, 2009
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