The Associated Press Fights Back Against Shepard Fairey’s Suit

First Shepard Fairey was arrested in Boston while he was also receiving news that the Associated Press was going public with copyright concerns for his now-iconic Obama poster. Then Fairey sued, saying he was well within his legal right as an artist to borrow an AP photo. Now the AP has countersued against Fairey’s original suit. Their claim is that they made the effort to get the artist to comply with usage rights for the original photo, but he ignored them and now they’re seeking additional “damages and injunctive relief on claims of copyright infringement.” And as if that weren’t enough, the city of Boston is now saying that they’d like to add a few more charges to Fairey’s rap sheet, saying that he illegally hung several of the aforementioned Obama images up around the city without permission. We’re guessing the artist is probably wishing he’d just voted for McCain right now.

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