The Associated Press vs. Famous Street Artist Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey has been a street artist I have looked up to for some time. He is known for creating incredibly intricate murals all over the United States. However, he isn't one of the best designers to look up to with this copyright infringement case. This street artist created the Hope poster during President Obama's presidential election campaign in 2008.

This was a different case involving artwork and not apparel design or something along the lines of that. This design was inevitably used for Obama's campaign with approval from Fairey. However, Fairey never did get permission from the one person important in this case, Mannie Garcia, the freelance photographer who had taken the photo of President Obama in the first place by the Associated Press. Fairey argued that it didn't take any value away from the photography and in fact it made it more valuable.

This court case was never taken to trial and this case created a lot of loss in the value of the work in these sort of copyright wars. Garcia actually said that he was happy Fairey chose to use his photo to design this poster, however, he would've allowed it had he been asked permission to use it. Fairey took this image without permission and didn't give any credit to Garcia for the picture. In this way, he is using something that wasn't his creative work. Although the effect of this campaign was incredible from this design and it influenced many individuals, you have to always have permission from the original artist.

This is very important in copyright cases whether it be in the apparel design, photography, etc. because all of these could bite you in the back if you unlawfully use someone else's work to inspire your own. This is one of the cases I found really interesting because it is so important yet there wasn't a court case ever or actual verdict. However, this gained immense popularity because it was part of the Obama campaign. In the end, Fairey had to split his profits with Garcia for the poster.

From the article: https://99designs.com/blog/tips/5-famous-copyright-infringement-cases/