Gettin’ Legal With It
One of the great things about inspirational public figures is the tendency for them to provoke wonderful art pieces. In Obama’s case this tendency has grown to huge proportions, partly because of the man and partly because of the increased technological means of art production and distribution. Art depicting or inspired by Obama is literally everywhere. Personally I think this is a wonderful change from the sarcastic and critical art that sprouted from Bush’s administration. To see your president depicted as someone worthy of respect and admiration is rather nice.
However, apparently such art isn’t safe from the law. The legal threats currently swirling between The Associated Press and Shepard Fairey regarding his now iconic artistic representation of Obama have proved this. Maybe I’ve become overly optimistic amidst all of this hope and change, but I was actually surprised about this. I don’t know very much about law, but I was under the impression that one could be inspired by images without being held hostage by copyrights. Since when is a painting of a man able to be legally bound to a single photograph? Photos of Obama are everywhere, and have been for a long time. Even if the image from the Associated Press is actually the inspiration, how can you prove that when there are probably many similar images circulating? To hold a painting under the legal thumb of the supposed inspirational photo seems ludicrous to me.
Cases such as this only serve to stifle the creative community. Why risk following your inspiration of you’re just going to end up in court down the road? I think it’s sad that The Associated Press chose to target Shepard Fairey for its own personal gain. The saddest part is that the photographer who actually took the photo praises Fairey’s work and appreciates what he has done with Obama’s image. Hopefully the dust will settle with Fairey on top. Either way, this case should serve to define some limits on whether inspirational media in the end controls what it inspires.
Link to NY Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/arts/design/10fair.html
3 years ago