Artworks by all of them were cited as evidence in Shepard Fairey's latest counterclaim against the Associated Press! The embattled street maestro Shepard Fairey has been fighting court battles on two fronts for a while now, with his now-famous copyright suit/countersuit saga with the AP dragging on and a vandalism case in Boston continuing to gather new charges. But is the ever-hopeful artist getting worn down? Hardly. In a head-spinning feat of legalistic jujitsu, Fairey has just responded to the AP's lawsuit--in which they claim he unlawfully lifted a news photo of Obama for his "Hope" poster--by showing that the photo service has a history of selling images of his work and that of the six other artists without permission.

In his court filing, Fairey says the AP's photograph of his "Obama Hope Mural" from his current ICA Boston show (taken after the lawsuits started flying) and other photos do less to alter or otherwise comment upon the source material than his "Hope" poster does--making them even more of a copyright liability according to the United States' "fair use" statute, which only protects the appropriation of proprietary images when used toward creative ends. Fairey also points to past AP photos of Ron Mueck's "Mask II," Jeff Koons' "Stacked" and "Ushering in Banality," Keith Haring's "Hope" (ironically enough), Banksy's "Sketch for Essex Road" and "Di-Faced Notes" and the three other works below. This unconventional tactic is almost satirical in the length it goes to in order to accuse the AP of hypocrisy--by its logic, nearly every photograph of contemporary art would require the permission of the artist before being published. But Fairey says he's simply trying to make a point. As he wrote on his blog: "I am fighting the AP to protect the rights of all artists.... I’m not accusing the AP of infringing anybody’s rights. I’m saying everyone should have the same broad rights of fair use and free expression, and that includes the AP." Will this work as a legal gambit? It's worth a shot!

Check out the AP's photos of the artworks mentioned:
Banksy’s "Di-Faced Notes" and "Sketch for Essex Road"
Keith Haring’s "Hope"
Jeff Koons’ "Stacked" and "Ushering In Banality"
Ron Mueck’s "Mask II"

and:

An AP photo of George Segal's "The Diner," included in the filing. ; Via the AP

An AP photo of Kerry James Marshall's "Den Mother," from the court filing. ; Via the AP

A photo of Banksy's "Untitled," included in Fairey's court filing. ; Via the AP

Read recent stories on Fairey's legal troubles:
"Judge tags Shepard Fairey for vandalism" [via the Boston Herald]
"It's getting uglier: Shepard Fairey one-ups Associated Press in dispute over Obama image" [via the Los Angeles Times' Culture Monster blog]
The New York Times' exhaustive coverage of Fairey's AP face-off