Shepard Fairey Sues Associated Press

Alleged plagiarist/vandalist, would-be DJ, and street artist Shepard Fairey has creatively turned the tables on the AP, preemptively suing the organization for his supposed appropriation of an AP image in the now-infamous Barack Obama "Hope" poster. The AP had asked Fairey to pony up for use of Obama's face; in response, Fairey and his lawyers (including Anthony T. Falzone of the Fair Use Project) claim Fairey created a “stunning, abstracted and idealized visual image that created powerful new meaning and conveys a radically different message" from the AP photo. Will "fair use" be known as "Fairey use" from now on? We eagerly await a decision.