And quite convincingly. If you’ve been riveted by the story of the artist who created the iconic Obama hope portrait who is now being sued by the Associated Press then you need to see this. There is a PDF link on the this web site which takes you to the counterclaim prepared by Fairey’s lawyers. The following excerpt is followed by numerous examples of the AP attempting to sell photographs of artists’ works without permission.
Defendant’s counterclaims are barred in whole or in part by the equitable doctrine of unclean hands. Specifically, The AP claims copyright ownership in, and makes commercial use of, many photographs that consist almost entirely of copyrighted artwork of Fairey and other artists without permission. Copies of these photographs are offered for sale and licensed for use by The AP through its image licensing database available at http://www.apimages.com. These photographs include, but are by no means
limited to, the following examples:a. The AP’s image database includes the following photograph of Fairey’s Obama Hope Mural. The AP did not obtain a license to use Fairey’s work in this photograph.
I’m glad to hear he’s fighting the AP. It sounded from the beginning like they were just trying to get a piece of the action.
I hope the AP ends up looking worse than when they started, like that McLibel case.