A danger to our creativity

Damian Dovarganes, Associated Press

Artist Shepard Fairey signing his Barack Obama “HOPE” poster: Fairey’s claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create the poster became a widely watched court case about fair use. Last week, his attorneys had withdrawn from the case and said Fairey had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material.

The Associated Press' vendetta against Fairey is a war against art.

By MINA LEIERWOOD

Last update: October 21, 2009 - 3:25 PM

The one-sided Oct. 18 article trashing Shepard Fairey, the artist of the iconic "HOPE" poster of Barack Obama, was written by the Associated Press, which is involved with two lawsuits against Fairey.

The controversy surrounding Fairey's influential and original red, white, and-blue print of candidate Obama should be a wake-up call for artists, musicians and scientists all over the United States. It is a perfect example of corporate greed utilizing intellectual property laws to control and own American culture.

It's not the photographer or the subject of the photo who is suing Fairey, it's the corporation that owns the photo. The question of who owns the imagery, music and even scientific innovations of today and tomorrow is a deep question -- one that affects our American way of life. We'd better start thinking about it, for our children's sake, if not for our own. Our freedom of creativity as a nation is on the line here.

Fairey's art continues in the vein of Andy Warhol's Pop Art of the '60s that is still influential today. And, ironically, on the same page as the Associated Press' article on Fairey, there is a photograph of another controversial piece of intellectual property, a Che Guevera mural on a Cuban wall. Should this owned image of the Cuban revolutionary belong to one person or corporation and not to the people?

It belongs to the people. You will never convince them otherwise. The image is an icon, part of our cultural heritage.

Our culture is evolving quickly; in a digital age, we are able to communicate with cultures from all over the world. Americans have been the engine of ingenuity, we are creative individuals experimenting with those innovations -- scientifically as well as artistically.

What if corporate greed smashes our creativity with its intellectual property laws? Then creative people will go elsewhere. Countries with less stringent copyright laws will attract the artists and innovators. These creative people will be able to draw on discoveries of the past.

So don't be so fast to condemn Shepard Fairey. Intellectual piracy is all the rage these days -- until you get caught.

Mina Leierwood, Minneapolis, is an artist and art teacher at Southwest High School.

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