I’ve been thinking about the Shepard Fairey vs AP copyright dispute I referred to yesterday. As clever as Mr Fairley is, there’s no doubt his Obama HOPE image rests as if on a foundation on the Mannie Garcia photo (copyright owned by AP, it transpires).

As the side-by-side comparison demonstrates, without the Garcia photo, what would Fairley have? The original deserved to be acknowledged/credited/licenced it seems to me.

For fun, consider my original ‘art work’ of Auckland supercity mayoral candidate Len Brown (who I had a brief chat with at the opening of the Going West literary festival at Titirangi last Friday.)

What do you think?
Am I a creative genius or what?

But how does your appreciation of my staggering artistic powers change when you see my source material?

Makes a difference, huh?
The original source is relevant, isn’t it? It should be acknowledged.

And that’s what AP is taking Shepard Fairey to court for copyright infringement to show.