Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.
"AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey's attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution."
Translation: "We just want our cut of the $."
Ahh - I always took that poster as a mock communist poster. It certainly follows the style of the Soviet propaganda posters.
My thoughts exactly.
This is why AP was so upset when Obama didn’t allow AP photogs into the Oval Office at one point, and instead released pics taken by a White House staff photographer (which, of course, would be in public domain).
Maybe the AP should talk to to Obama about restitution.
From the article:
Fairey also used the AP photograph for an image designed specially for the Obama inaugural committee, which charged anywhere from $100 for a poster to $500 for a poster signed by the artist.
Yep, $$s talk.