A) I have used other creatives’ work mostly for my own recreational purposes, never for any monetary gain. I have used it for practice, referencing in art, or just to allow me to achieve a vision that I want to achieve but do not have the time, resources, or energy to achieve completely on my own. However there was one time where, working on an online game project with friends, we borrowed many assets from free repositories online, and I had to go and find all of the credits to the free-to-borrow assets and put them into a google doc with proper credit.
B) I empathize with the artist, Shepard Fairey, in this case. It’s very easy to just see a photograph and assume that, since it’s not something that had to be drawn or designed, that it is completely free and fair to use. However, photographs are also a form of art, and proper credit should be given to photographers and photo editors. The photograph was not Fairey’s to use, and he should have asked for permission to use it and give credit to the original owners of the photograph where applicable.
