Earlier today, pranky activist group the Yes Men, posing as General Electric, issued a press release announcing that the company would be “gifting its entire 2010 tax refund, worth $3.2 Billion, to the US Treasury on April 18, Tax Day.” Amazingly, the Associated Press ran with the bogus story. And the timing could have been more perfect. Read more »
The AP and Fairey’s Obey Clothing settled their copyright infringement lawsuit and related fracas, before the scheduled March 21 hearing. The resolution is similar to the one earlier this year when Shep agreed to collaborate with the AP and never use their photos without permission again, tsk tsk. The AP also gets a confidential settlement sum and will “collaborate” with Shep on more merch. Read more »
US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein has dismissed the cases between Shepard Fairey and the Associated Press. And so, the whole copyright infringement vs. fair use vs. fake evidence ballyhooed mess has been resolved with a “confidential” financial settlement. The AP and Fairey will also “collaborate on a series of images,” according to the AP’s press statement. Wait, what? Read more »
The Associated Press issued a memo on Thursday about a certain location in lower Manhattan where Muslims will gather and wants journalists to basically avoid lying like other media outlets, even in the “slugs.” Read more »
As you may have heard, Shepard Fairey, stole a photo owned by the AP and transformed it into the iconic “HOPE” image that became a dominating symbol for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and permeated pop culture, even making its way into the Smithsonian. But then the AP sued him and he lied, twice. Read more »
In a searing blow to counter culture and the integrity of his career, graphic design stealing artist Shepard Fairey admitted he lied about the source of his presidential HOPE portrait in his ongoing legal dispute with the Associated Press. In a statement released Friday on his website, he discussed the blatant thievery and apologized, kinda: Read more »
The Associated Press issued a statement denying claims they were planning to charge bloggers $2.50 a word to quote their content in a response to recent criticisms of their automated licensing forms, part of plans to stop the “misappropriation of news on the internet.” Spokesperson Paul Colford explained that the iCopyright form drawing so much ire “is not aimed at bloggers. It is intended to make it easy for people who want to license AP content to do so.” Read more »
Just as his Boston vandalism charges are wrapped up with a guilty plea, Shepard Fairey’s other legal problems are getting more complex. Mannie Garcia, the freelance photographer who shot the Barack Obama photo on which Fairey based his iconic “Hope” portrait, is jumping in the fray between the appropriating artist and the Associated Press. Garcia is challenging the AP’s lawsuit against Shepard Fairey for copyright infringement, filing a motion that he is the actual owner of rights to the photo. Read more »
In one corner: Shepard Fairey, an artist who has built his empire on appropriated art but files cease and desist letters to artists who co-opt his work even for parody purposes. In the other corner: The Associated Press, the world’s biggest news service sometimes less accurate than MTV that claims “fair use” only applies to them, not others. These two challengers will vie to win a new competition organized by Evan Roth, the Graffiti Research Lab co-founder and Hova textualizer, who writes: Read more »
On Tuesday, lawyers for artist Shepard Fairey filed their countersuit against the Associated Press, alleging that his use of one of their photos of Barack Obama in creating the iconic “Hope” portrait is protected within the bounds of fair use. Using the “doctrine of unclean hands,” Fairey’s lawyers also contend the AP is engaged in similar behavior to that they’ve accused Fairey of. One section of the document details more than a dozen instances of the AP copyrighting and profiting from photos that are nearly or exclusively composed of copyrighted artworks they don’t have permission to, including works by Fairey, Banksy, Jeff Koons and other artists. Read more »
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