Obama Poster Artist Can Change Legal Counsel, Judge Rules
An artist who created a well-known poster of Barack Obama can change lawyers despite an opposing party’s objections that his original counsel had “unique knowledge” of the case and a substitution at this point in the case would be costly, a federal judge in New York has ruled.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein granted the counsel change motion today, reports the Associated Press, which is also the opposing party in the lawsuit.
The lawyers for artist Shepard Fairey sought to withdraw from the case “after Fairey acknowledged he was mistaken about which AP photo he used to create his famous image and attempted to destroy evidence of his error,” according to an earlier AP article. The AP has been seeking to question both Fairey and his former lawyers about his earlier claims concerning the photograph; however it appears from the article that Hellerstein may have granted the news agency permission only to question Fairey.
Fairey’s now-former legal team was headed by Anthony Falzone of Fair Use Project at Stanford University. His new lawyers include Geoffrey Stewart of Jones Day and William Fisher III of Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
The case revolves around an attempt by the news agency to collect licensing fees from Fairey based on his use of its photograph as a model for the Obama image in the poster. Fairey, who colored in a tracing of the AP photograph to create his poster, according to the Los Angeles Times, has been claiming that his art work is a transformative fair use of the material, as permitted by United States copyright law.
Stewart also told the AP that a fair use defense is not the only way his client could win the case.
Related earlier coverage:
Culture Monster (Los Angeles Times): “Shepard Fairey admits to wrongdoing in Associated Press lawsuit”
Am Law Litigation Daily: “Pressure from Kirkland Lawyer Forced ‘Obama Hope’ Artist Shepard Fairey to Admit Evidence Destruction in AP Case”
