Comments on: Shepard Fairey: Cultural vanguard or plagiarist?

By: DaleC

DaleC — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:34:27 +0000

Isn’t the essence of the punk movement anti-authoritarian?

Except for those damned corporate stooges “The Stooges” :-)

By: wesley what what

wesley what what — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:00:36 +0000

why do i find it so amusing that the colbert brothers pronounce their last names differently?

By: Ben

Ben — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:14:48 +0000

“Fairey’s decision to sue the Associated Press to me signaled the end of his career. The man’s washed up, and if he does come back, he’s certainly lost his counterculture credentials.”

Fairey’s countersuing the AP, which is very different from being the originator of a charge. From what I understand, it’s fairly common for defendants to countersue their accusers, especially in ip cases. I don’t know if you’d call an artist fighting back against the hilarious bumbling of a large corporation’s bloated legal team “punk,” but it’s definitely anti-authoritarian.

By: DaleC

DaleC — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:15:08 +0000

there is always common ground somewhere :-)

By: edgewood adam

edgewood adam — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:56:02 +0000

Dale my buddy, i couldnt agree with you more.

By: DaleC

DaleC — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:42:08 +0000

It seems to me that he altered the pic enough to satisfy most fair use standards. He also didn’t damage the original works value (in fact he enhanced it immeasurably).

I was under the impression that Fairey was not paid for the work. He did it and it went viral. Is that true?

Not punk? Getting sued into oblivion is not punk. Fighting back is punk.

By: leila

leila — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:29:35 +0000

I see the couter-suing as pretty much his only option, not un-punk or anything like that. He’s just fighting fire with fire, getting his point across in a safe, and not in a loud or obnoxious way. The whole point of that poster wasn’t just the image but the way it was manipulated, which made it the symbol that it was. Which means he’s protected fair and square. He’s obviously in an entirely different arena than he was a few years ago but just because one of his pieces became far more popular than any of this other work hardly means he’s washed up.