Obama Hope 08 Fairey
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• Posts in this forum should directly relate to the artist, art, or artwork.
• Do not post ISOs or FS/Ts in this forum section. Please use the Open Market section of the EB forums for all secondary (resale) market activity.
• Do not post details of your order process, shipping status, or condition upon arrival in this forum section. Please use the item's Release Discussion thread for this activity.
- jimmyhoops
- Art Connoisseur
- Posts: 497
- Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:00 am
The plot thickens....
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/ ... 0fair.html
Artist Sues the A.P. Over Obama Image
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: February 9, 2009
In a pre-emptive strike, the street artist Shepard Fairey filed a lawsuit on Monday against The Associated Press, asking a federal judge to declare that he is protected from copyright infringement claims in his use of a news photograph as the basis for a now ubiquitous campaign poster image of President Obama.
The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan after The Associated Press said it had determined that it owned the image, which Mr. Fairey used for posters and stickers distributed grass-roots style last year during the election campaign. The photo, showing Mr. Obama at the National Press Club in April 2006, was taken for The A.P. by a freelance photographer, Mannie Garcia.
According to the suit, A.P. officials contacted Mr. Fairey’s studio late last month demanding payment for the use of the photo and a portion of any money he makes from it.
Mr. Fairey’s lawyers, including Anthony T. Falzone, the executive director of the Fair Use Project and a law professor at Stanford University, contend in the suit that Mr. Fairey used the photograph only as a reference and transformed it into a “stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that created powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message” from that of the shot Mr. Garcia took.
The suit asks the judge to declare that Mr. Fairey’s work is protected under fair-use exceptions to copyright law, which allow limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes like criticism or comment.
“Fairey did not do anything wrong,” said Julie A. Ahrens, associate director of the Fair Use Project and another of Mr. Fairey’s lawyers, in a statement on Monday. “He should not have to put up with misguided threats from The A.P.” Paul Colford, a spokesman for The A.P., said on Monday that the agency was “disappointed by the surprise filing by Shepard Fairey and his company and by Mr. Fairey’s failure to recognize the rights of photographers in their works.”
He added: “A.P. was in the middle of settlement discussions with Mr. Fairey’s attorney last week in order to resolve this amicably and made it clear that a settlement would benefit the A.P. Emergency Relief Fund, a charitable fund that supports A.P. journalists around the world who suffer personal loss from natural disasters and conflicts.”
Mr. Fairey, 38, has become one of the most visible practitioners of a guerrilla-style art that has grown out of the graffiti scene but has expanded beyond paint to include a wide variety of techniques and materials, producing works usually displayed illegally on buildings and signs.
Mr. Fairey decided to create the image on his own before contacting the Obama campaign, which welcomed it but never officially adopted it because of copyright concerns. Before the election, Mr. Fairey was best known for his fake-advertising stickers and posters, pasted in cities across the country, showing an ominous, abstracted image of the wrestler Andre the Giant along with the word “Obey.”
Mr. Fairey is the focus of a retrospective that opened last week at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. (In a development that was not much of a surprise, he was arrested there on Friday, accused of illegally pasting his work in places around Boston; he has pleaded not guilty.) A collaged work made by Mr. Fairey based on his Obama poster was acquired last month by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, part of the Smithsonian Institution, and placed in its permanent collection.
After Mr. Obama’s victory, speculation increased about which picture had served as the basis for Mr. Fairey’s posters. In interviews the artist said that it was one he had found on the Internet. Bloggers, including the Manhattan gallery owner James Danziger, pursued several leads until, according to the lawsuit, Tom Gralish, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, helped track down a photo by Mr. Garcia that showed Mr. Obama sitting beside the actor George Clooney at a 2006 event about Darfur at the National Press Club.
Further complicating the dispute, Mr. Garcia contends that he, not The Associated Press, owns the copyright for the photo, according to his contract with the The A.P. at the time. In a telephone interview on Monday, Mr. Garcia said he was unsure how he would proceed now that the matter had landed in court. But he said he was very happy when he found out that his photo was the source of the poster image and that he still is.
“I don’t condone people taking things, just because they can, off the Internet,” Mr. Garcia said. “But in this case I think it’s a very unique situation.”
He added, “If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it’s had.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/ ... 0fair.html
Artist Sues the A.P. Over Obama Image
By RANDY KENNEDY
Published: February 9, 2009
In a pre-emptive strike, the street artist Shepard Fairey filed a lawsuit on Monday against The Associated Press, asking a federal judge to declare that he is protected from copyright infringement claims in his use of a news photograph as the basis for a now ubiquitous campaign poster image of President Obama.
The suit was filed in federal court in Manhattan after The Associated Press said it had determined that it owned the image, which Mr. Fairey used for posters and stickers distributed grass-roots style last year during the election campaign. The photo, showing Mr. Obama at the National Press Club in April 2006, was taken for The A.P. by a freelance photographer, Mannie Garcia.
According to the suit, A.P. officials contacted Mr. Fairey’s studio late last month demanding payment for the use of the photo and a portion of any money he makes from it.
Mr. Fairey’s lawyers, including Anthony T. Falzone, the executive director of the Fair Use Project and a law professor at Stanford University, contend in the suit that Mr. Fairey used the photograph only as a reference and transformed it into a “stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that created powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message” from that of the shot Mr. Garcia took.
The suit asks the judge to declare that Mr. Fairey’s work is protected under fair-use exceptions to copyright law, which allow limited use of copyrighted materials for purposes like criticism or comment.
“Fairey did not do anything wrong,” said Julie A. Ahrens, associate director of the Fair Use Project and another of Mr. Fairey’s lawyers, in a statement on Monday. “He should not have to put up with misguided threats from The A.P.” Paul Colford, a spokesman for The A.P., said on Monday that the agency was “disappointed by the surprise filing by Shepard Fairey and his company and by Mr. Fairey’s failure to recognize the rights of photographers in their works.”
He added: “A.P. was in the middle of settlement discussions with Mr. Fairey’s attorney last week in order to resolve this amicably and made it clear that a settlement would benefit the A.P. Emergency Relief Fund, a charitable fund that supports A.P. journalists around the world who suffer personal loss from natural disasters and conflicts.”
Mr. Fairey, 38, has become one of the most visible practitioners of a guerrilla-style art that has grown out of the graffiti scene but has expanded beyond paint to include a wide variety of techniques and materials, producing works usually displayed illegally on buildings and signs.
Mr. Fairey decided to create the image on his own before contacting the Obama campaign, which welcomed it but never officially adopted it because of copyright concerns. Before the election, Mr. Fairey was best known for his fake-advertising stickers and posters, pasted in cities across the country, showing an ominous, abstracted image of the wrestler Andre the Giant along with the word “Obey.”
Mr. Fairey is the focus of a retrospective that opened last week at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. (In a development that was not much of a surprise, he was arrested there on Friday, accused of illegally pasting his work in places around Boston; he has pleaded not guilty.) A collaged work made by Mr. Fairey based on his Obama poster was acquired last month by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, part of the Smithsonian Institution, and placed in its permanent collection.
After Mr. Obama’s victory, speculation increased about which picture had served as the basis for Mr. Fairey’s posters. In interviews the artist said that it was one he had found on the Internet. Bloggers, including the Manhattan gallery owner James Danziger, pursued several leads until, according to the lawsuit, Tom Gralish, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer for The Philadelphia Inquirer, helped track down a photo by Mr. Garcia that showed Mr. Obama sitting beside the actor George Clooney at a 2006 event about Darfur at the National Press Club.
Further complicating the dispute, Mr. Garcia contends that he, not The Associated Press, owns the copyright for the photo, according to his contract with the The A.P. at the time. In a telephone interview on Monday, Mr. Garcia said he was unsure how he would proceed now that the matter had landed in court. But he said he was very happy when he found out that his photo was the source of the poster image and that he still is.
“I don’t condone people taking things, just because they can, off the Internet,” Mr. Garcia said. “But in this case I think it’s a very unique situation.”
He added, “If you put all the legal stuff away, I’m so proud of the photograph and that Fairey did what he did artistically with it, and the effect it’s had.”
~JimmyHoops...Widespread Panic and Grateful Dead Poster Fanatic!
- But-we-unleashed-a-lion
- Art Expert
- Posts: 3677
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:00 am
- Location: Portugal
These were taken from the last "AP" sales:
Discuss
Discuss
Looks like some phishy sales to me.
I might go through my collection and make everything an AP, too.
I might go through my collection and make everything an AP, too.
latetotheshow wrote:Flipping is like jerking off. Everyone does it, but nobody wants to get caught.
Steven Novella wrote:Where confusion reigns, opinion is king.
- mondiablue
- Art Connoisseur
- Posts: 340
- Joined: Sun Nov 09, 2008 9:04 pm
I would never buy an AP unless it has rock-solid provenance. Truly sad.
Allegedly.
- aahnutz
- EB Team
- Posts: 21776
- Joined: Fri Apr 08, 2005 12:00 am
- Location: Some place I'd rather not be...
Oof! Those are pretty bad.exadore wrote:Looks like some phishy sales to me.
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- But-we-unleashed-a-lion
- Art Expert
- Posts: 3677
- Joined: Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:00 am
- Location: Portugal
So you are saying that if we erase the number and write AP we are OK?Kdh12 wrote:if it is on the usual thick paper then you are golden
if it is on thin paster paper then you are stupid
And,
Hope 1st = 600 --------- 279 sold - 46.5%
Hope AP= 60 max??----- 42 sold - 70%
Knowing that APs usually are sold to real collectors and AP edition may be out of 30 this is definitely a problem
there was 100 hopes offsets at some event shortly after the original onsale, except they were only signed not numbered. given away to the first 100 at some concert or benefit. obviously a lot of those were tagged with phony "AP"s. i would only buy one that is numbered, from a known collector, with the proper obey and paypal receipts. bummer for all of those getting played on $6,000 investment that will one day be sour.
Who deserves the R2D2 cookie jar more? The Star Wars fan, or the Cookie Jar nut?
Never seen this one before
130284300672
130284300672
That's the stamp edition...scrubjay wrote:Never seen this one before
130284300672
But-we-unleashed-a-lion wrote:So you are saying that if we erase the number and write AP we are OK?Kdh12 wrote:if it is on the usual thick paper then you are golden
if it is on thin paster paper then you are stupid
And,
Hope 1st = 600 --------- 279 sold - 46.5%
Hope AP= 60 max??----- 42 sold - 70%
Knowing that APs usually are sold to real collectors and AP edition may be out of 30 this is definitely a problem
Why don't some people with REAL Obey AP's in their collection post some pictures of what the AP looks like, that way we can compare and see which ones look legitimate.
Codeblue wrote:Nevermind, I confused myself.
uummmm no. first off anyone with half a clue already knows what sheps 'AP' looks like, and secondly why would we want to confirm it for the forging douche bag lurkers that use this place to rig up their ebay auctions? fact is that at the very least 60% of the APs sold would not have proper provenance. i made a post about it months ago. bummer people are still getting fooled.Subtle wrote:But-we-unleashed-a-lion wrote:So you are saying that if we erase the number and write AP we are OK?Kdh12 wrote:if it is on the usual thick paper then you are golden
if it is on thin paster paper then you are stupid
And,
Hope 1st = 600 --------- 279 sold - 46.5%
Hope AP= 60 max??----- 42 sold - 70%
Knowing that APs usually are sold to real collectors and AP edition may be out of 30 this is definitely a problem
Why don't some people with REAL Obey AP's in their collection post some pictures of what the AP looks like, that way we can compare and see which ones look legitimate.
if i were shep i would try to crack down on it for a number of reasons......
Who deserves the R2D2 cookie jar more? The Star Wars fan, or the Cookie Jar nut?
so very wrong, and exactly the logic that is making these criminal sellers bank and putting buyers out thousands.Kdh12 wrote:if it is on the usual thick paper then you are golden
if it is on thin paster paper then you are stupid
Who deserves the R2D2 cookie jar more? The Star Wars fan, or the Cookie Jar nut?