The readings assigned were very insightful, especially the ones about copyright. As I’ve said in one of the discussions, I’ve always had an inkling on how Copyright and fair use because if you’re on Youtube as much as I am, coming across those topics is inevitable. But again it was only an inkling. I learned way more about Copyright from these articles. For example I did not know you could use © without any legal action or anything. You can put it on your work as soon as it’s created and it’s valid. Another thing I learned is that fonts are not copyrightable except in the case of calligraphy or scripts if expressed in artwork. Before I used to put the © symbol on my work as a joke but now I’m going to do it with full intention now that I know it’s legally valid. I don’t recall using anyone’s work in my own outside of essays, and school projects. Even so I cited them appropriately.

In the Hope case, even though I believe the two year probation was enough and the 25,000 dollar fine was overkill, Shepard Fairey was still 100% in the wrong. Not only did he lie about using AP’s photograph, he tried to destroy any evidence regarding that case. In hindsight he might have gotten off lucky. I can only imagine how much money he made off of that poster. You couldn’t turn your head without seeing that poster everywhere when it came out.