ArtisTech: Fair use, Copyright, and the Hope Poster

So if you have any connection to YouTube s of late you will know that Copyright is a HOT topic right now. For those of you who are still getting into the online swing of things let me give you a little back story.

**Clears throat and takes deep breath** Youtube is finding that a lot of their users are not exactly acquiring all of their content legally. They may be using songs with out asking or without sighting, as well as just plain copying other big YouTubers in order to gain popularity. YouTube has tries to remedy this by allowing people to claim copyright infringement. The Video is then either taken down or they lose all their monetization until they can find out who should get the credit. Where the "Drama" comes in is where creators start illegitimately claiming copyright infringement.

This lesson is geared to talk about what my students are allowed to do, and how to stay legal in a world of Copyright issues.

Our Feature artist for this assignment is none other than the fabulous and ridiculous Shepard Fairey.

Shepard Fairey is the artist responsible for the very memorable "Hope" Poster.

He is also the center of a large legal disagreement. You see the image he used was not his own. He had taken it from the internet. The picture was actually taken by Manny Garcia and belonged to the Associated press. Well when they saw the fame Shepard was getting from this image, and they recognized their picture, they were not to happy about it. They sued Shepard Fairey for copyright infringement.

Shepard on the other hand claimed Fair use, which is where you can use an image for transformative proposes. Shepard was about to get away with it too until evidence came out, that he had hidden evidence proving he had known he was stealing the picture.

Personally I think that he didn't steal the picture and that he never set out to take the credit away from someone else. I don't think he handled the situation well, but this whole issue is a big opinion war, so tell me your opinion in the comments below.

The whole situation is a bit of a fluke, however it is important to know how to protect yourself.

Our students got to make their own hope poster. They will not be selling them, which helps the copyright issue, also they are using images that are free to the public, as well as original images that are just being appropriated.

Here is a tutorial from youtube to learn how to do it your self!