Thursday, February 5, 2009

A Generation Of Criminals II: Shepard Fairey

Well, on my latest copyright bent, the Associated Press is gunning for Shepard Fairey for using a press photo without citation for his own profit. Oh wait, what? Shepard Fairey donated the image to the Obama campaign? Which means he hasn't made any money by it?

So the real infringer is... the Obama campaign! Why isn't the AP suing the Obama campaign! Maybe that might actually get politicians to think about the limits on intellectual property.

I would like to point out that, unlike Gone With The Wind or Streetcar Named Desire, the photo Shepard Fairey used would be under copyright even if it was under a Founder's Copyright (7+7). Of course, it would be nice if the AP gave CC-BY rights on their photos, or CC-BY-SA. You know, if they were interested in getting newsworthy photos out there, rather than just being interested in profit.