Shepard Fairey says he lied to his attorneys and destroyed evidence about which photo he used to create the Obama hope poster.
When he sued the AP in February (after they’d claimed he’d violated their copyright), he said he’d used a photo of Obama sitting next to George Clooney at the National Press Club — the first one here. The AP claimed he used another image from the same event — a close-up of Obama. Now he admits that he did use that image.
Here’s what I can’t understand: Why did he lie? He and his former attorneys—who withdrew from the case when he fessed up to lying—now say that the particular image he used doesn’t undermine his fundamental fair use right. That seems right to me; both images are from the same photographer at the same event, and each could easily have served as the basis for the Hope poster. If one of them can be appropriated under fair use, so can the other.
But if he believed that, why did Fairey say he used the Clooney image and not the close-up? Does the close-up image make the fair use case more difficult? Why? Was there a reason Fairery lied — or was he just dumb?
October 17, 2009, 11:10am Comments
