Left: Original photograph by Mannie Garcia

Right: Promotional artwork by Shepard Fairey

This case study that was conducted in 2011/2012 was based on the controversy behind artist’s Shepard Fairey’s poster artwork for the Obama Administration. Fairey took photojournalist Mannie Garcia’s photograph that was under fair and public use and was allowed to be published, and created the infamous Obama ‘HOPE’ poster as a donation for the Obama Administration. Garcia worked for an AP or Associated Press which means that any photo that he took while on the job did not belong to him; it belonged to the AP that he worked for. Fairey’s intention behind the poster was to help promote Obama’s campaign after it was supposedly falling short. Also, Fairey was in fact a serious supporter of Obama and wanted to help him out. However, the Associated Press that Garcia was working for did not like this and sued Fairey for using Obama’s photo without permission or licensing  from them. The AP claimed that Fairey copied the work from the photo instead of using the photo as a reference for his poster. This poster was created back in early 2007 and this dispute between the AP and Fairey did not settle until early 2011. Basically Fairey had to agree to not to use another photo from an AP without a license and has to go through certain financial terms that remained confidential. Fairey and the AP also agreed to share the rights that will hopefully make distributing posters like the HOPE Poster easier and both Fairey and the AP have agreed to collaborate in a new set of AP photos that will be acceptable for usage. I think that the outcome was a fair outcome since it was understandable that Fairey did not go through a license for using the photo, he would just now have to agree to be sure to go through licensing before using a photo. Overall I thought the outcomes were pretty fair and there were no harsh penalties on Fariey nor the AP.