News Story Link

Dear brilliant classmates: I found this news item about Shepard Fairey, the "street artist" whose "Kennedyesque" image of Barack Obama appears everywhere, including on page 228 of our textbook. The artist is being sued by AP for the use of their image, and he is arguing that he is protected by "fair use," which skirts copyright laws based on how much of the original is used, its purpose, and its impact, if any, on the original, which we discussed at length in seminar. Fairey was recently arrested in Boston on graffiti charges, just as he was to open a gallery installation, another interesting story, but the part of the story that correlates with our conversation is in the last couple of paragraphs.