Shepard Fairey: Hero or Hypocrite?

[NOTE: Update at bottom of the post.]

This week, the Pittsburgh City Paper reports that now-legendary street artist Shepard Fairey -- he of the Obama "HOPE" poster -- is suing local graphic designer Larkin Werner over the use of the word "OBEY" in association with Werner's own indie art project, Steelerbaby.

In a nutshell, one of many designs for Steelerbaby merchandise says, simply, "Obey Steelerbaby." Fairey's lawyers claim the use of the word "Obey" is trademark infringement, because Fairey himself first became famous for a series of street art featuring an image of Andre the Giant (remember him?) and the word "OBEY" -- which he then evidently trademarked at some point over the past 20 years.

The ironies, hypocrisies and questions raised by this story are numerous, including:

* Fairey was originally sued by the WWF (now WWE) for his copyright-infringing Andre the Giant images in the first place. But who really "owns" an image? And if that image is of a person, doesn't that person have the final say over where his or her image is allowed to be used?

* Fairey has been under fire from the Associated Press, who claim his Obama "HOPE" image is a blatant infringement on a photo they own the rights to. Fairey's response is that the "HOPE" poster is a derivative work, which means he has the right to use the original image as a basis for something new. If that's his defense against the AP, why wouldn't it also apply in Steelerbaby's case?

* Larkin has yet to be sued by the Pittsburgh Steelers (or the Kewpie doll company), either of which would probably have a much better reason for doing so than a corporation founded by a fellow "street artist."

* Can you realistically trademark a commonly used word?

* At what point does an artist cease to be "street" and transition to becoming "corporate"? (Is it when your work is installed in The National Portrait Gallery? Or is it when you countersue the AP?)

* Am I the only person who thinks now is a great time to push for wider adoption of Creative Commons licenses, as opposed to copyrights and trademarks?

What do YOU think? (Because we already know what Gawker and Steelerbaby think...)

UPDATE (March 23, 2009): It seems Shepard Fairey dropped the lawsuit against Steelerbaby.

Lan Bui vs. The Public Mindset

As you may have heard, West Coast podcaster Lan Bui had some concerns about Podtech using one of his photos on a commercial advertisement for the Vloggies without proper accreditation OR compensation.

He tried to settle the issue through the proper channels, including invoicing Podtech for the usage of his photo. Three months later, he's still awaiting closure on the matter.

Having now blogged about the issue, he's brought the subject to the public. The comments on his blog typify the real problem that he -- and the rest of us -- face in trying to obtain respect for our work.

The podcasters who stopped by were all supportive. Then came the (as always, anonymous) trolls, whose statements include:

you are being a cry baby. get over it the net is about free content

and

from a paparazzi perspective, yeah... that's your picture of casey mckinnon and you perhaps deserve some kind of compensation, I guess. but I wouldn't make a big negative stink about it. this company that has money clearly likes your work and by acknowledging their oversight you could probably leverage doing some work for them... why be a cranky self-righteous photographer.

This is exactly why podcasters aren't making money: no one outside the fishbowl respects web content (yet). They don't respect the time, effort and talent it takes to produce quality content, and they don't believe that investment is worth the creator being paid -- at the very least, not by them, the audience.

It's telling that the second commenter suggests that Lan shouldn't be upset because a company "that has money clearly likes your work," and he should be thrilled at maybe approaching them for some legit freelance. After all, they did "steal" his work, so that's a validation worth enjoying, right?

Since when did being ripped off by a corporation become a cause for celebration?

Sorry, anonymous trolls, but someone pays you for what you do, and someone should pay the best of us for what we do as well. It's capitalism. Surely you understand that, right?