...These titles don't make a lot of sense.
I was a tad surprised to hear that the rather infamous "Hope" picture of Obama had copyright surrounding it, as I was convinced it was an actual ad campaign by Obama himself. So hearing the fact that not only did some random guy make it, but that there is attempted legal action against it was a bit of a shock.
So after doing some research on the whole business, I find the fact that AP seems rather keen on taking Fairey and his poster down. There's just a few things that seem rather odd in the whole deal.
I do have to see Fairey probably should have given some credit to Garcia, the man who took the photo in the first place. But no only was the edit not used at all to make a profit, it was for politics alone, but Garcia has stated he doesn't mind his photo was altered into the well known poster. The real drama here is coming from AP, the company that hired Garcia to take the photo of Obama in the first place. This leads us to a whole situation of who owns the photo in the first place.
While the photo was used by AP and they tasked Garcia to take the photo, it still is Garcia's photo at the end of the day. And it feels like he should have more say than the company that merely published the picture. If Garcia was upset his picture was used, this would be an entirely different story. But judging off the fact that he was fine, I believe he should have more say than AP in this situation. And in that case, that leaves Fairey more in the right side of things. As I said, credit would have been nice and would have probably made this situation a lot cleaner, but judging by Garcia's reaction and the original purpose of the picture, I believe it should be fine and not count as direct plagiarism.
Hey Dmitri!
ReplyDeleteYou know I was thinking the same thing actually. Being that Garcia was the original photographer it would make sense that he would have more legal leverage in this case. But unfortunately that's what happens when you work under a large corporation like AP, they own everything you put out as long as you are under contract. Sometimes it's intellectual property. That's the way it is in the company I work for. If I develop an idea while I am employed by them I cannot take it with me when I leave. And if I try to they can take legal action. So messed up!