Obama graffiti artist arrested in Boston
Feb. 7th, 2009 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gategrrlThe graffitti artist who spread Barack Obama's image with a reinterpretation of an AP photographer's portrait photo has been arrested in Boston. Shepard Fairey was on his way to his gallery opening (presumably on Newberry Street) when Boston's Finest arrested him for supposedly graffitti-ing up a few walls, and marking it with an Andre the Giant tag. He was not arrested for the Obama portait (at least directly).
Apparently the photographer, Manny Garcia, didn't copyright the image; and AP seems to not understand the transformative aspects of painting from a photograph. If this were a true problem, Andy Warhol would have been arrested soon after his Campbell Soup cans were hung on a wall. And there goes much pop art into the copyright infringement argument that's currently going on.
Apparently the photographer, Manny Garcia, didn't copyright the image; and AP seems to not understand the transformative aspects of painting from a photograph. If this were a true problem, Andy Warhol would have been arrested soon after his Campbell Soup cans were hung on a wall. And there goes much pop art into the copyright infringement argument that's currently going on.
