OBEY Fairey

I'm pretty persnickety when it comes to the concept of copyright. The idea of anyone using my characters without my permission makes my skin crawl. That said, I don't know why the AP is making a stink about Shepard Fairey's HOPE poster now. Maybe if he'd ever passed the portrait of Obama off as his own there would be some revelation here, but there's a web documentary, which I saw even before the election, of Fairey talking about how he made the poster, and why he based it off of that particular photo from the news. Should he have gotten permission from the photo's owner? Probably. (Though it seems to me his work could be considered a parody of the original photo, like MAD Magazine or something.) But even if it's illegal, such is street art. (And it should be noted that Fairey hasn't made any money himself off the poster.)

I think the AP is just trying to stake its claim on Obama-mania. On the T yesterday I saw a UMass poster advertising the fact that it gave Barack an honorary law degree in 2006. It's still strange to me that anyone wants to associate themselves with the president. Isn't the president supposed to be toxic? Now he sells magazines.