“A legal dispute over a famed poster of then-senator Barack Obama goes to the heart of a very modern-era debate over what is ‘fair use’ of images that are readily available on the Internet,” wrote Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of First Amendment Center in an article posted on the Newseum Web site. “
The article explains the dispute between artist Shepard Fairey who developed an iconic image of the presidential candidate and the Associated Press, which published a photography that served as Fairey’s inspiration.
“The dispute revolves around a complex part of copyright law called ‘fair use’ and whether Fairey’s artistic work was ‘derivative’ or ‘transformative,’” Policinski wrote in the “First Amendment Challenge: Who Owns Obama’s Image?”
For information on other First Amendment issues, please visit www.firstamendmentcenter.org and the Newseum’s Cox Enterprises First Amendment Gallery.
For information about Obey Giant Art, Inc., which Fairey and his wife, Amanda own or to watch a debate on the “Colbert Nation” regarding the copyright issues surrounding the Obama poster.
