Shepard Fairey, the artist who turned a generic AP photo of Barack Obama into an iconic painting, got a hefty punishment for lying to government investigators.
WSJ (“Obama ‘Hope’ Artist Gets Probation in Copyright Dispute“):
The artist behind the “Hope” poster that became a symbol of President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign was sentenced on Friday to two years probation and 300 hours of community service for lying during a copyright dispute involving the iconic image.
Shepard Fairey, who was also ordered by the judge to pay a $25,000 fine to the government, in February admitted to fabricating documents and lying in a civil lawsuit he had brought against the Associated Press.
Mr. Fairey had faced as much as six months in prison after pleading guilty in February to a single misdemeanor count of criminal contempt. Prosecutors, who sought jail time in the case, said anything less would send “a terrible message” to people who might commit similar conduct in the future.
As far as I’m concerned, Fairey’s work was sufficiently transformative that AP should have had no copyright claims to a generic photo taken of a United States Senator in a public setting. That said, Fairey obviously shouldn’t have lied, much less fabricated documents, in the ensuing lawsuit.
Still, as Bill Clinton taught us, people—even incredibly intelligent people who graduated from the top law school in the country—reflexively lie when they’re caught doing something embarrassing. I’m not sure that doing so should be a crime.
