2B) Shepard Fairey is an artist who had gotten tangled up in a lawsuit due to the “Hope” campaign poster that he had created using a photo that was not his. Fairey had decided to destroy the documents and shift the blame to someone else to hide the fact that he used a photo of Barack Obama from the Associated Press as well as hiding the fact that he had found the photographer. Not only did Fairey destroy the documents and shift the blame to someone else, he filed a lawsuit against the Associated Press claiming that he used a different photograph. What Fairey should have done was give credit to the photographer and/or aquire the rights to the image. In the end, both sides had agreed to share the rights to make posters and merchandise containing the “Hope image.” As designers, we should always, always remember to give credit to the original artist’s work or your career will be over while facing the consequences.
Kennedy, Randy. “Shepard Fairey Is Fined and Sentenced to Probation in ‘Hope’ Poster Case.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Sept.2012, https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/shephard-fairey-is-fined-and-sentenced-to-probation-in-hope-poster-case/?mtrref=undefined&assetType=PAYWALL
