Press Releases

07/15/2009

Photographer stakes claim to image in Obama poster


DAVID B. CARUSO
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — A freelance journalist whose photograph of Barack Obama was the model for the president's iconic campaign posters, says that he, not The Associated Press or artist Shepard Fairey, owns the copyright to the image.

The AP and Fairey have been battling in court over intellectual property rights related to the red, white and blue "Hope" poster.

All sides acknowledge that Fairey modeled the Obama in the poster on a picture freelance photographer Mannie Garcia took at the National Press Club in Washington in 2006, while working on temporary assignment for the AP.

Fairey has said he was within his rights to use the then-obscure photo as a jumping-off point for his artwork. The AP has argued that Fairey "misappropriated" the image without permission.

But in court papers filed last week, Garcia said both are wrong. He said he never assigned the copyright for the photo to the AP, and retains the exclusive right to license the image.

"The photograph exhibits the artistic talent of Mr. Garcia. He was the one who got the right positioning, the right lighting, the right framing at the right moment," said his lawyer, George Carpinello. "We have no problem with Mr. Fairey creating a poster, but he should have used his own image, or at least acquired the rights to that image."

AP spokesman Paul Colford said in a statement that the news service "is evaluating Mannie Garcia's position, but remains confident in AP's ownership of the copyright because Mr. Garcia was an employee of AP when he took the photo in 2006."

Anthony Falzone, of the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society, which is representing Fairey, said Garcia's copyright claim isn't directly relevant to the artist's argument that the poster is so different from the photo that it constitutes an original work.

"Our position is: It's fair use no matter who owns the photograph," said Falzone, who is the executive director of the center's fair use project.