The trial between the Associated Press and artist Shepard Fairey over his use of a copyrighted photo in the iconic Barack Obama “Hope” poster now has a date: March 21, 2011.
The trial is expected to take three weeks.
During a court appearance in New York to set the trial date, Team Fairey “told the judge that Fairey will show at trial how he made the Obama image, calling it a work of art based on one photograph.”
The AP claims that Fairey’s use — without credit or compensation — violated its copyright.
The news agency's photographs used by Fairey were taken from a press event in Washington in 2006. Obama, then a senator, was seated next to George Clooney.
Seems to me it should a clear case of a designer using source material to create a work of art, though Fairey has stumbled a bit in his defense so far.
According to the AP, Fairey “acknowledged that he based his artwork on a picture of Obama that did not include Clooney and that he had submitted false images and deleted other images to conceal his actions.”
Suddenly, Fairey’s case is not so clear.
