I still believe in a place called ......

Ya'll remember this old chestnut, don't you?

The one time street artist, now the mainest of mainstream, Shepard Fairey, skyrocketed to more fame ( and maybe elected a President ) with this now iconic poster. Everyone with a computer "hoped" themselves. It is close to just being perfect...... and was not Mr. Fairey's photo! ( oooooops, my bad...) Turns out it is an AP owned photo, and those AP folks, all pissy at the loss of teletypes, want a little bit of the green that came from the red, white and blue.

 From HUFFPO : "NEW YORK — A judge has dismissed copyright lawsuits between an artist who created the Barack Obama "HOPE" image and The Associated Press but has left a March trial date in place for related claims between the news service and companies that sold merchandise using the artist's image.

U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein said in a one-page order publicly filed Tuesday that a "suggestion of settlement" led him to dismiss claims between artist Shepard Fairey and the AP. He said the claims could be reinstated within a month if either side requested it.
The judge said other claims between the AP and Fairey-related companies that manufactured or marketed products based on the image will be put before an eight-person civil jury on March 21. Lawyers on all sides did not immediately return messages seeking comment Tuesday.
The dispute stems from an AP picture taken in 2006 when Obama, then a U.S. senator from Illinois, was at the National Press Club in Washington ( the rest )

Mr. Fairey, seen here with his icon poster ,is one of the main subjects of the Golden Globe nominated documentary " EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP ", which I watched while we were in Atlanta.


Loved Loved Loved this film....  as long time readers will know, I went through that slight obsession with Banksy - see: housekeeping - and a big fan of street art in general. ( call it street art , call it outsider art... it's all the same, just generational and sort of urban v rural ). It's on streaming netflix now for all you snowbound folk reading. Really sort of nails the pretense of the whole shebang...